What was it all about?

This project, which ran from 2012 through 2015, collected custard apple production figures from the industry and establish the value of production of through actual grower returns. The result was the development of the Custard Apple Dispatch System (CADS).

The system allows registered growers to generate and transmit dispatch advices electronically, and wholesalers and exporters to enter and transmit payback prices electronically.

Importantly, it also allows for reporting at grower and industry levels, helping to facilitate strategic planning within the industry. CADS can generate aggregated industry reports of throughput and value by state, market, variety and month. Growers who use the system can also extract their own data on production costs to inform business decisions.

The original CADS project provided invaluable data for the industry, allowing a comparison of seasonal production figures which indicated custard apple production increased over the project period, although prices fell slightly.

In the 2015 season a total of 51,415 trays were processed through CADS, equating to about 30 per cent of total production.