Seeding a future for ginger in the NT

Region: Greater Darwin | Topic: Horticulture
Feb 2021

Ginger production in a protected cropping system
Above: Ginger production in a protected cropping system

In 2019, the Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism (DITT) established a co-innovation program with local growers looking at the production of clean, high quality ginger varieties.

Horticulture Extension Officer, Dallas Anson and Research Scientist Maddison Clonan from DITT’s Agriculture Division recently planted over 500 tissue-cultured ginger rhizomes from two commercial cultivars, Queensland Gold and Canton.  The focus of the trial is to establish a local ginger industry.

The new plants will be grown at a grower-owned nursery greenhouse and bulked up for larger production, with key production characteristics and management practices recorded using mobile data collection technology and QR codes.

Australia is a net importer of fresh ginger, with 224 tonne per year imported and nine tonne per year exported. The Australian Ginger Industry has a farm-gate value of approximately $32 million and is currently concentrated in south east Queensland.

Contact

Dallas Anson
P: 08 8999 2294

dallas.anson@nt.gov.au

Back to NT Rural Review - February 2021