Specialty melons, a protected cropping opportunity for the tropics

Working closely with industry, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has been at the forefront of developing melon production systems using protected cropping.
This video provides an overview of the benefits and opportunities for using protected copping in warm environments. The growing methods can produce high quality specialty melons for niche domestic and export markets, where these fruits attract high prices. The warm environments in the Australian tropics are ideal for growing melons with high eating and visual quality. Protective cropping structures allow year round production as they mitigate climate variability and constraints of outdoor farming. The specific agronomy practices assure high yields of fruits with consistent high quality.
The video includes a start-to-end journey in a crop with highlights of the intensive crop management required to achieve the desirable fruit quality outcomes. The video also stresses the importance of a marketing plan to differentiate the product and make it attractive to consumers.
The collated information and production of this video was produced as part of projects that have co-investments from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries:
• Strengthening Northern Australia’s horticultural sector through assessing protected cropping, supported by the CRC for Developing Northern Australia.
• Driving ag-tech adoption across Australia (AS20007), supported by Hort Innovation Australia and contributions from the Australian Government.
• A collaborative value chain evaluation to demonstrate the feasibility of exporting high quality melons from North Queensland, supported by Queensland Government through Growing Queensland's Food Exports.