Take your pick: two orchards have hit the market together

In the Sunraysia at Red Cliffs, two almond farms are being offered together for around $22 million.

Across in the Riverina at Leeton, a group of owners, including citrus industry stalwarts John and Dean Morris, have listed for sale Moricom Orchards, a citrus and avocado property priced around $25 million.

The Wilga Road and Ballinger farms which make up the Yarrum aggregation at Red Cliffs takes in 635 hectares (1569 acres) providing a substantial early-stage horticulture opportunity.

They have a combined planted area of 317ha and agents from CBRE Agribusiness say a further 200ha is well suited for further development.

The farms were planted over 2021 and 2022 with a mix of Nonpareil, Carmel and Shasta almonds.

The trees planted in 2021 are being harvested with an expected yield of about 500-750kg per hectare.

The aggregation is being offered for sale on a walk-in walk-out basis with plant and equipment to be negotiated throughout the sale process.

"Due to the recently developed orchard and quality irrigation and fertigation systems as well as the potential to further develop unplanted land, this aggregation will be well received by incoming purchasers," CBRE's Angus Bills said.

"We're expecting interest from current industry participants seeking to increase their scale and corporate agribusiness companies."

Ballinger Farm has a new irrigation and fertigation infrastructure, supplying both Ballinger and Wilga Road farms via a 575mm mainline along Wilga Road.

The irrigation system is completely automated and is currently irrigating as a single shift, with an output of 0.6mm per hour.

The Lower Murray Water supply channel is gravity fed to a 200 megalitre storage dam with a 6529 megalitre annual use.

Soil types include Mallee sandy loams over a deep clay with sections of heavier sand

Improvements include an office compound, implement shed and workshop, chemical shed and an almond storage shed with an existing processing and marketing agreement with AlmondCo.

CBRE Agribusiness is managing the sale via an expression of interest campaign closing on March 14.

For more information contact Angus Bills on 0400 859634 and John Harrison on 0404 335267.

In the Riverina at Leeton, Moricom Orchards takes in 501ha (1238 acres) with a total orchard area of 108ha (267 acres).

The orchard was planted between 2007 and 2023 with a mix of Afourer Mandarins, Sumo Mandarins and Hass Avocados as well as 168ha (415 acres) of plantable land available for future expansion.

The land is located about 18km north of Leeton and 41km south-east of Griffith.

Agents said the owners selected the property for its key attributes including proximity to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Main Canal, elevated topography for minimal risk of frost and flood, fertile soils and its Mediterranean climate.

The mandarin plantings have been developed to a best-in-class standard with 55ha trained on trellis systems and 51ha of the mandarin plantings under permanent netting providing protection from wind and hail.

All trees are planted on north-south large, raised mounds in high density plantings ranging from 1000 to 1500 trees per hectare.

Moricom Orchards is managed using open hydroponics principles tailoring the delivery of water and nutrition to meet the trees' needs during the various phenological growth phases.

The orchard's irrigation water is automatically pH adjusted to ensure that nutrients are taken up freely by the trees and are delivered to the plantings via state-of-the-art fully automated drip irrigation and fertigation systems.

Unique management techniques such as "water stressing" are adopted to increase the natural sugar content in the fruit desired by premium markets.

The orchard is set up for platform harvesting as a precursor to robotic harvesting in the future.

"The Moricom Orchards site was strategically selected and has been designed to grow premium quality sweet tasting seedless fruit targeted at supplying counter seasonal export markets and the Delite and Sumo consumer citrus brands in Australia," CBRE's Boo Harvey said.

The avocado production is aimed at supplying the gap after Queensland harvest has finished and before Western Australia starts.

CBRE Agribusiness's Boo Harvey (0498 990075) and John Harrison (0404 335267) have been appointed to manage the sale via an expression of interest campaign closing March 21.