THE life of a producer is undoubtedly full of trials with significant flood events and cold snaps leaving many growers at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Rollingstone farmer Stephen Pace, who co-runs one of the region's largest pineapple productions, said he has experienced the wrath of the north's nature first-hand, including a severe flood a couple of years ago which saw 100,000 pineapple plants washed away from the farm.
Last year was also a tough time for producers across the state, when a widespread weather event forced plants into natural flowering, causing a loss of 70-80 per cent of product and a large shortage in April - which didn't alleviate until September.
"(Sometimes) they will naturally flower themselves (due to a cool snap or heavy rain) when they're not big enough. You have to make up your mind if it's significant enough to pick," Mr Pace said.
"But you still have issues where you've got to put fertiliser on the remaining plants to get them to a size...it can cause quality issues. You don't really like to do that but sometimes you have no choice.
"Prices in the shops were the highest we've ever seen (last year). I didn't think people would pay that much. It helped us in a way...we needed more money for pineapples as what they were getting sold for wasn't enough...and all our imports have gone through the roof; (fertiliser, freight, fuel and everything) increased very quickly.
"There were three years there where we struggled. Suddenly they cut growers back on the amount of tonnes supplied to the cannery and all that fruit had to find a home. The only option was fresh markets...and we suffered really low prices for three years. That's pretty much the cycle of a pineapple plant - you can get two crops in three to four years."
Around 200ha of Pace Farming are under the tropical fruit, with up to 5000 tonnes picked each year and sent straight to the fresh market, to local fruit shops or to third party fruit wholesalers who will put the stock on chain store shelves.
Picking operations have begun, with big volumes set to ramp up in September until the most active picking period in November and December - before the biggest sale week of the year; the week before Christmas.
The Pace family's roots within the industry began in 1936, when Mr Pace's grandparents Michael and Annie bought the land which had sugar cane and pineapple crops.
"(They) had three children; Roy, Colin and John. John is my father, he's passed away now too. They sort of took over the farm from their father, the three of them, it was known as Pace & Sons," he said.
"Roy had two sons, Raymond and Allan. Colin had no children, John had two sons; myself and Robert. (As soon as we left school), they bought us into the company."
In 1987, Pace Farming was born.
"We had to do everything; fertilise pineapples, plant pineapples, pick and pack," Mr Pace said.
Around 60-70 years ago, the family moved its sugar cane operation to a 1214ha farm at Bambaroo, with around 60,000 tonnes each year taken to the Victoria Mill.
The family business also expands to the cattle industry, with Brahman cross scattered across blocks at Crystal Creek (where the main breeding herd is located), at the family's property at Hencamp Creek (where their pineapple packing shed, NQ Paradise Pines, is located), and at Bambaroo.
"We also grow watermelons and pumpkins mainly on the farms here," Mr Pace said.
Activity across the farm is beginning to pick up, with planting set to begin at the end of March.
"When it's dry enough, we'll start planting...we tried earlier but when you have a particularly bad wet season or rain event...it sets the ground like concrete and they don't grow very well," he said.
"It pretty much takes six months to get all the pineapple plants in the ground. Last year we ended up planting around the two million pineapple plant mark. That's the most we've ever planted.
"We've had a good run. We bought a new property up there (at Hencamp Creek) that we're starting to develop with pineapples on it."
Gesturing to a crop of nearby plants, Mr Pace explains the intricacies of rearing a fruit for harvest.
"They're probably about three to four weeks off what we call forcing. We basically force them to flower. What we do is we put a mixture of urea and boron and a chemical called ethephon over the top," he said.
"The ethephon forms a gas, ethylene, which tricks the pineapple, stops it growing and they throw a flower. That way, the whole patch will be harvested at the same time, rather than allowing it to come along naturally.
"It takes six weeks to see a flower come out of the heart and it...matures from there. In our area, and depending on the size of the planting material... from planting to harvest...you're looking at 15-18 months."
The former Australian Pineapples chairman and Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers and Tropical Pines board member said he represents horticulture on a broader scale.
"The time I spent as chairman of the industry...I really got my teeth into that. You try to be as fair as you can and put aside what you think is going to help your own farm and try and focus on what's going to help everyone," he said.
"There is a lot of behind the scenes stuff that you wouldn't know about if you're just a farmer."
Mr Pace said times have changed from the days when he and his brother Robert left school in year 10 to get hands on experience alongside their father John.
"Like a lot of other industries, it's getting smaller. The biggest thing for a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, the consumption just doesn't seem to be going up with the population," he said.
"People who are buying it are looking for easy ways. To me, a lot of fast food and things like that.
"There have certainly been (surveys conducted) through the industry which shows the biggest thing that prevents people from eating a pineapple. They can't be bothered taking it home and peeling it. It's not an easy fruit...like a banana or piece of citrus.
"The industry or people within the industry have to be aware of that, and I think be open-minded to looking at some new ways they can help the pineapple consumption rise."
While practical skills are a huge component of success within the industry, Mr Pace said knowledge is also key - particularly agronomic knowledge of pineapples.
"The Golden Circle cannery back in its hey day produced 120-130k tonnes of fruit a year...(which were) put in tins or juice," he said.
"They had four trained agronomists trained in pineapples in that company. Now there's none and they're back to 25k tonnes.
"And of course DAF...there's not the money for them anymore. There...(are) very good people with still some knowledge in pineapples mainly down south (and) I worry they're not going to be replaced when these people retire. That knowledge is going to be gone."
It is not just the loss of knowledge that concerns Mr Pace - it's the revolving door of regulations, including environmental red tape that can put "so much pressure on growers", record keeping and audits, that hamper production and slap producers with more costs and hoops to jump through.
"I think farmers get a little bit unfairly blamed for what's going on with the (Great) Barrier Reef and everything like that. (It's) going to get stricter and stricter...we're going to have regulations put on us," he said.
"In sugar cane...(we're on the verge of) a best practice scheme...it's starting with the big industries and working its way down. We try to be proactive. We've had people here collecting water samples from DAF. We've got nothing to hide in what we do. I would rather know if there are any issues and try and stop it.
"The biggest thing for me is all this ethically sourced produce...I'm not saying there's probably a very small percentage out there that aren't doing the right thing...but the majority are.
"It's never ending. If governments keep letting this happen...people are going to keep dropping out of (the industry)."
While price gouging at the supermarkets has recently been a topic of contention amongst politicians and producers, Mr Pace said the people he has spoken to within the industry, who supply to Woolworths and Coles, "don't have a bad word to say about them".
"Have they probably wronged some people? They probably have. Mind you, some wholesalers have probably wronged some people as well. I think it's been blown out of proportion to some extent," he said.
"Whether they're price gouging is debatable...you go in there and see what they're selling for and it does make you wonder. But once again, because I don't deal directly with them, I don't know what they're paying the people who do.
"The small fruit chain stores...when you've come into weeks where weather causes a real spike in volume, unless they've gone on promotion...they're not taking any more fruit. So farmers send to wholesale markets for whatever they can get for it and that's when farmers start losing money. It's a bit of a vicious circle.
"Unfortunately, the only way to rectify that is actual attrition with growers dropping out. It's not good but I guess it's the way it's always been. I guess it's not going to change in a hurry."
While hard times test even the most devout of growers, the highlights of life on the land makes up for the tough times, ten-fold.
"The first time we ever had the annual pineapple field day here, that was about 10 years ago, maybe a bit longer. It was a really good event. It was just unreal. A lot of the growers from south east Queensland came and from all over the state," he said.
"It was just a good social time and I was pretty proud of the event. We did a big dinner down inn the shed...we're hosting it this year on July 25-26.
"There is a program now, the Bowen fruit and vegetable growers...are getting school groups (to visit on farm). I think it's a brilliant idea. Start at that level so kids can understand how it happens."
For the next generation of producers, Mr Pace has a simple piece of advice - don't stay "too far away from operations".
"Don't get too ahead of yourselves. Don't get too big or think you can be a manager sitting in an office somewhere and trying to run something like this...and don't stop learning," he said.
"Even though you're not doing too much of the physical work anymore...getting around, seeing what's going on and managing your staff that way. Not micro-managing but keeping an eye that it's getting done properly. When you've got some skin in the game, you have a little bit more pride in what's done.
"Don't be frightened to try new things, but on the other side of that, don't go into anything wholeheartedly at first. Trial it."
