By LEAH ANDERSON–BYRNE and BRODIE EVERIST

CHESTNUTS are coming in late this year, but early signs are promising a good harvest, according to two local growers.

Brian Casey, a Eurobin–based chestnut farmer and president of Chestnuts Australia, said the harvest was around two or three weeks later than usual, but quality was strong and demand high.

"Demand is strong at this stage – because of the late harvest lots of chestnut consumers are wondering where all the nuts are," he said.

"Within a week or two I'd say the harvest will be in full swing and there'll be plenty of nuts in the market."

Regarding internal rot, the fungal disease that impacts harvested nuts, Mr Casey said early signs are promising.

"I've spoken to a couple of growers – no one's reporting any signs of problems at this stage, which is a relief and good news," he said.

"That doesn't mean we're going to get through the whole season without some popping up somewhere; we'll have to wait to see.

"We're fairly confident it will not be a bad nut rot year."

Owner of La Castanea Chestnut Producers, Nicholas Moschis, said this year's harvest has seen slightly lower yield, but a higher quality compared to 2022.

"Last year we had a high volume but the quality wasn't as good; it's all weather related," he said.

Mr Moschis said they lost around 20 percent of their crop last year due to wet weather.

"This year we had less nuts, probably due to the cold weather in December causing low pollination, but we didn't get rain at the wrong time so when they did get pollinated we didn't get the rot levels," he said.

"Personally half my crop goes to wholesale and another half to our retail outlet at Queen Victoria Market where we do roastings and sell them."

La Castanea harvests 10 acres of chestnut trees every year, around 1000 trees, and usually picks up to 10 tonnes of nuts.

"This year the season is about two weeks later than normal due to a cold spell in December, which slowed everything down, then when the warm weather came in it continued," Mr Moschis said.

"Typically the later variety is always cooler so it didn't affect those as much; the early varieties are more affected by variable weather.

"The weather is fairly normal for this time of year so our later varieties haven't noticed a difference.

"The recent rain has given more moisture which is ideal for later varieties."