Red grapefruit from the Kimberley's Ord Irrigation Scheme have gone on sale about two months later than usual this year, but are enjoying strong demand and fetching good prices.
The brightly-coloured grapefruit from the Ord are normally harvested during March-April, but for a few reasons, the harvest this year has only just been completed.
Grower Stewart Dobson said a dry and very hot wet season in 2015/16 played havoc with the trees.
"The same weather which resulted in last year's awful mango flowering and season, had a similar impact on the grapefruit," he said.
"Thankfully the fruit kicked on well after the wet season we've just had and when we investigated the market we found citrus was selling well for this time of year.
"So we decided to pick in June and we've been selling fruit to markets like Perth and Sydney."
Red grapefruit proving to be a popular winter treat
Mr Dobson said the strong demand for red grapefruit during winter had been a pleasant surprise.
"Normally we'd never be selling grapefruit at this time of the year because we couldn't get a return on our money, but because of a shortage of fruit in the market, we're getting a reasonable price," he said.
"The grapefruit has been excellent, it's as good a quality that we've ever produced.
"We've got very high sugars and juice in the fruit and it's very nice to eat."
Mr Dobson's family were the former managers of an 80,000 tree red grapefruit plantation in the Ord which was owned by the MIS company Rewards Group, before it collapsed in 2010.
A lot of those trees have since been replaced by bananas.
Mr Dobson said plans to export large volumes of grapefruit to Japan collapsed when Rewards went into receivership, and there were now about 12,000 red grapefruit trees in the Ord.
He believed the tropical fruit still had a healthy future in the region.
"With 12,000 trees we think we can keep the domestic market supplied at a reasonable price," he said.
"With 80,000 trees, without exports, you flood the market and you can't sell the stuff."
