PINATA Farms will use Queensland's Granite Belt to provide year-round strawberry production.
Pinata Farms has announced its most southerly strawberry farm at Stanthorpe will come online for commercial production by September this year.
Strawberry production manager Sean Riley said until now, Pinata had not produced strawberries outside of Wamuran on the Sunshine Coast.
Since relocating to Stanthorpe in February from Mundubbera, Mr Riley has overseen the planting of some 457,000 strawberry plants, with plans to expand that by another 500,000 in time for the 2015 season.
"The Stanthorpe farm previously operated as an apple farm, and was specifically acquired to produce Pinata's spring and summer crops due to its favourable altitude of 990 metres," he said.
"Existing infrastructure including packing shed facilities and logistics had to be updated in readiness for the 2014 season."
He said Pinata Farms would join a handful of other Stanthorpe-based strawberry producers growing spring and summer crops outside Queensland's traditional strawberry-growing season, which fell from June to October.
"We're endeavouring to produce the best warm-weather strawberries from this region and to be a significant producer in terms of volumes," he said.
Mr Riley is also responsible for overseeing strawberry production at Pinata's 45-hectare Wamuran farm, which produces five million punnets from May to late September each year.
The Stanthorpe operation has about 10ha under cultivation and is expected to produce nearly two million punnets in its first year of operation from late September this year to May 2015.
Up to 50 people will be employed during harvest.
Mr Riley has previously grown raspberry, boysenberry, hops, olives and citrus crops in his homeland of New Zealand and Australia, and said the challenge of developing a property for commercial production really interested him.
"The conditions here are really quite different in every way from growing strawberries on the Sunshine Coast, but the Albion variety we are growing here thrives in the cool climate and produces super-sweet and large berries," he
said.
"Albion strawberries handle frosty conditions very well and we're expecting a big flush in quality fruit coming on as we move closer to the official harvest.
"While they can also be challenging to grow - as they can be vulnerable to some climatic changes - their flavour is unsurpassed.
"We're confident we're on track to produce as good a quality of fruit here as Pinata is renowned for."
Pinata Farms' managing director Gavin Scurr said the business' Wamuran operations were off to a flying start already.
"We had the perfect pre-harvest conditions leading into the season with mild, dry days ideal for producing quality fruit," Mr Scurr said.
"Conditions could not have been better for our Stanthorpe farm as it comes online for the first time."
More than 2.1 million runners are planted on plastic-covered beds at Pinata's 45ha Wamuran farm to produce some five million punnets of fruit until late September.
"Stanthorpe production has been strategically planned to close the gap in our supply window, ensuring a 12-month supply from Pinata from here on," Mr Scurr said.
