WELCOME TO BALMORAL ORCHARD

"WHERE QUALITY COUNTS"

Balmoral Orchard was established at Cabarlah, Queensland in 1988 with a goal of growing top quality avocados for Australian markets, in the clean, pure mountain air at the summit of the Great Dividing Range.

GROWING AVOCADOS ON THE TOOWOOMBA RANGE

The spectacular orchard site with warm summers and cool winters provides a perfect environment for growing Hass avocados.

• Healthy Climate: sunny days, cool nights and clear air on the summit of the Great Dividing Range provide ideal conditions for exceptionally slow fruit growth and ripening.
• Slow ripening: allows accumulation of phyto-nutrients in the fruit, producing the distinctive "buttery-nutty" flavour for which Balmoral Avocados are renowned. 
• Healthy Soil: The freely draining, volcanic red soil at Balmoral Orchard provides an ideal, disease-free medium to grow avocado trees.

FROM TREE TO TABLE - THE AVOCADO JOURNEY

New Plantation at Balmoral April 2023

Planning for the Future

• Avocado production is a slow process with newly planted trees taking 3 years to produce their first fruit. Tree maturity and full production takes 5-6 years.

• Flowering takes place in September and this is followed by fruit set in October.

                      Flowering                                                   Fruit Set

• Following fruit set at Balmoral, the avocados slowly fill out and ripen over the next nine to eleven months. Optimum ripening and fruit maturity will then allow harvesting to commence, usually in July or August, depending on prevailing weather.
• Picking and harvesting of the avocados is all done by hand, with low fruit being picked by ground pickers while high hanging fruit are picked using cherry pickers.

• Avocados are transported from field to pack-house for refrigeration, grading and packing (see pack-house tour).

Newly picked avocados - transport to pack-house

Then grading and packing

Then off to market!