Pick-your-own farms now exempt from 100 visitor cap

Pick-your-own-fruit farm operations can now operate with more than 100 visitors at a time without the need for planning approval, under NSW Government changes to its agritourism policy.

Many pick-your-own-fruit farm operations had been operating under different rules to existing agritourism businesses and in many instances required approval or faced other barriers to their operations.

The agritourism policy, developed in conjunction with the NSW Small Business Commissioner, was introduced on 1 December 2022 with the aim of making it easier for farmers to make secondary use of their land for agritourism.

The policy includes requirements for exempt and complying agritourism development to meet a range of standards that make sure it is low impact and small-scale. Larger agritourism operations can apply for planning approval from the local council to ensure impacts are managed.

The Government said the agritourism policy would be reviewed after a year of operation to make sure that the exemption was not leading to unintended consequences for locals.

For more information visit Agritourism planning.