The Australian dried grape industry will celebrate this year's top performing growers at a field walk event in Cardross this week. 

Cardross grower Allan Long took out the Dried Fruits Australia (DFA) Top Crop Awards for the second time in three years – and is confident he can do even better. 

Mr Long won the inaugural Top Crop Awards with 15.81 tonnes to the hectare in 2022, and was back this year with a winning 14.79t/ha for his Selma Pete variety. 

The DFA Top Crop Awards were introduced to highlight the industry's best producing dried grape businesses, rewarding those that produce the highest value crop per hectare, based on their final yields, grades and any deductions and publicly known base level pricing. 

While his first year in the competition was greater than this year's crop total, Mr Long said his vines were still recovering after a failed crop in 2023. 

"The biggest difference this year was coming off the back of the failed crop from last year with downy mildew," he explained. 

"I lost most – about 80 per cent to downy." 

Despite already being at the top of the Australian industry in terms of production value per hectare, Mr Long thinks there's still room to grow. 

"I'm pretty confident that given some luck, I can actually do a bit better than that," he said. 

"That will be the intention – to get a bit better every year, or make it easier to manage each year, or make some small improvement each year." 

Mr Long has developed his own narrow row trellis system, a strong contributing factor to his success in producing high yields. 

The rows are spaced at about 7ft, rather than the traditional 11ft. 

However the development of his own system means that much of the work – despite being manageable for one person – is manual or has required the development of his own custom machinery to complete the season's tasks. 

"There's a lot of stuff that is done manually, so I'm looking a little more at mechanisation. If I can improve that a little bit, it'll make it easier to manage," he said. 

Mr Long will give a behind-the-scenes look at his block and his vineyard management at the field walk and Top Crop Awards presentation event this Friday, November 29.  

2024 Top Crop Award winners: 

Selma Pete: Allan Long – 14.79t/ha 

Sunglo: Triggs Trellis Supplies – 11.51t/ha 

Sunmuscat: RJ & WN Smart – 11.17t/ha 

Sugra39: M & O Secer Family Trust – 10.1t/ha 

Currants: Gardner DJ & BJ – 13.73t/ha 

Honourable mentions: 

Sunglo: Hidden Brick Vineyards – A & N Chabrel – 10.94t/ha 

Sunmuscat: JW & JL Hunt – 10.72t/ha