History & Regions
Australian dried fruits are grown along the banks of the beautiful Murray River that supplies water from the Australian Alps to irrigate the desert vineyards that produce dried grape varieties including sultana, currants and raisins and orchards producing dried apricots, peaches, pears and nectarines.

The regions of Sunraysia and the Riverland were established in 1888 as irrigation settlements with people from around the world came in bringing with them their hopes, families and skills to turn barren land into lush oasis producing fruits of the highest quality.

The dried fruits industry was the result of the difficulty in getting this wonderful fruit to market as the paddlesteamers were frequently stranded by low river flows during the summer period from January to April. Rather than see the fruit spoil, the growers started to dry their grapes and stonefruit in the clear hot days. This helped in rapidly removing the moisture and allowed the natural sugars to act as a preservative providing a storage life of up to a year and allowing the dried products to be cleaned, packed and shipped around the world.

The Industry
Australian dried fruits are acknowledged as world’s best by consumers and other producing nations. Over the past century, the Australian industry has developed growing and drying processes that lead the world in terms of productivity and efficient use of resources.

The Australian dried fruit industry has grown rapidly and has customers around the world for it’s sought after dried grapes whilst the dried tree fruits are mainly consumed domestically with little being exported from the crop that averages just over a thousand tones annually. The productive capacity of the dried grape industry is estimated at 25,000 tonnes.

The Australian industry has comprehensive quality assurance programs with all growers having received training with a heavy emphasis on maintaining the product integrity of Australian dried fruits.

Nutritional Value
Australian dried grapes have a low glycemic index, are high in fibre and contain valuable vitamins and minerals. Best of all they taste great and provide an ideal snack for the family or ingredient for baked products, breakfast cereals, salads etc.

The commitment of Australian producers to research and development means new and exciting varieties are regularly released to meet the needs of customers.

For more information on the Dried Fruit Industry industry, please click here.