Consumers are being encouraged to buy a slice of Queensland sunshine this winter, with the state's pineapple industry in oversupply.

Farmers are picking twice the amount of fruit as usual, thanks to the second-hottest summer on record.

Peter Sherriff owns a 250-hectare pineapple farm at Yeppoon in central Queensland.

He said the summer heatwave earlier this year had brought forward his spring crop, which he usually picked in September.

"I can't recall it being this bad. You always have a few natural flowering in amongst your winter stuff and you get through that, but this year we've had blocks and blocks of it have gone where they don't normally go," he said

"The quality is great, just they're a bit smaller because they're on a smaller plant from the long hot summer we had."

Mr Sherriff, who has been pineapple farming for 40 years, said his crop would have been worth twice as much if it had been picked in spring, when demand and prices were high.

"We'll have a shorter spring crop now where we actually sell and make a bit more money," he said.

"Winter is always a harder time to sell fruit."

A pineapple patch has been freshly picked at Peter Sherriff's farm near Yeppoon. ( ABC Rural: Megan Hendry )

Twice as many pineapples on market

Tropical Pines markets and distributes about 50 per cent of the country's pineapples.

Director Joe Craggs said the extra supply was causing problems on several fronts, with the usual winter crop also ripening early.

"All of that fruit that was going to come in July has been brought on by this wonderful warm weather we're having, which means we've got twice at much fruit right now," he said.

"Traditionally in winter we wouldn't have that much fruit, but with the events that have happened [we have] twice as many pineapples."

Mr Craggs said the industry was working hard to increase winter sales figures.

"Pineapple is full of Vitamin C and at this time of year, a pineapple is probably your best Mother Nature's flu jab," he said.

"We're encouraging all our retailers to support the farmers and to get in and get a good ticket on the pineapples and get in some good offers for consumers."

Low prices for consumers

Mr Craggs said pineapple prices were expected to be between $2 and $3 each over the next several weeks.

"That's probably up to 50 per cent off the normal price, which is tough for growers but what's important is we get consumer support," he said.

Mr Craggs said the urgency to get the fruit to market was further compounded by the temporary closure of the state's cannery.

"Golden Circle have their shutdown seasonally at this time of year because there's not much fruit around," he said.

"They'll close for about six weeks which is normal, that's just something the industry works around.

"Mother Nature doesn't recognise that and unfortunately she's thrown us a bit of a challenge this winter."

Twins James (L) and Alex Toolen are spending their school holidays working in the pineapple packing sheds at Yeppoon. ( ABC Rural: Megan Hendry )

With the rush to get the fruit picked and processed, local students are providing a much-needed labour boost.

Twins James and Alex Toolen, 14, are working in the Tropical Pines packing sheds at Yeppoon on their school holiday break.

"I'm putting the hot glue onto the pineapples so then they can put the tags on them and send them to shopping centres around Australia," James said.

"It's my first week and I've got packing tomorrow. Yesterday I was sorting the pineapples up the top there."

Alex said the fast-paced atmosphere made it a fun job.

"It's better than sitting at home doing nothing. But you've got to work fast," he said.

'We should be planting not picking'

Farmers are also trying to race the clock to get their usual winter planting done.

"It just means we're picking five days a week instead of only one," Mr Sherriff said.

"We should be planting our pineapples not picking, so somewhere down the track that's going to suffer a bit too because we're not getting plants in the ground."

Mr Sherriff said he still had at least two more weeks of harvesting to go before he could start on planting.

"We do about 1.2 million plants per year so we're just a bit behind now because we've had to do so much harvesting," he said.

"Eventually we'll catch up because we'll run out of fruit."

The spike in supply is expected to continue to flow through to supermarket shelves for the next several weeks.