Apple export into China may aid flooded Australian market

With other countries such as Chile and Peru exporting to China at a lower price, Independent Produce Suppliers director Frank Bueti, Pooraka, says Australian growers are at a disadvantage.

“The amount of produce China imports is huge, but the options where to buy from are even bigger,” he said.

“The problem is the price – what we have to charge to pick, pack, produce and transport, compared to what China can pay for produce from another country.”

Mr Bueti has been the director for IPS for the past 27 years, supplying fruit and vegetables to independent supermarkets across SA and into Tennant Creek, NT.

He also co-established FAB Export and for the past six years has been exporting wine and fresh food to Asia.

While there are export costs impacting Australian farmers, Mr Bueti said there were huge opportunities in China.

“Our existing growers have worked out how to get double the yield from their plants, which is fantastic,” he said.

“During the next two to three years, we are going to get a lot more (produce in the market), and we need to export.

“We have to find a way to get it over the line because we have too much and China needs it because they don’t produce enough food for their demand.”

The demand for fresh Australian produce in China was highlighted during an ANZ-organised trip this month, where a delegation of 15 horticulture producers met with Chinese supermarkets and importers.

Growers spent a week visiting distributors, retailers and e-commerce operations to develop a greater understanding of the demands and preferences for fresh foods and broader insights into a key market.

Also attending the trip was fifth generation apple grower Ashley Green, Hill View Fruits, Lenswood, who agreed export was the next step for fresh produce.

“It would open the door to a whole new market,” he said.

“It’s not going to be a miracle cure (to the flooded market) but it would give us the opportunity to, say, knock back supermarket prices because we could get more on the export market.”

He said Australian growers were facing a decline in consumption and in increase in production, which was hurting the growers’ hip pocket.

He hoped the Chinese market would approve trade agreements in 2019 for apples, which would allow access for the 2020 crop.

“China are the biggest apple growing country in the world, but they’re northern hemisphere and we’re southern, so we have that counter-cycle window,” he said. “We’ve seen what market access has done for the citrus and tablegrape industries … but we need to have more trade negotiations and deals in place.

“We’re (most likely) not going to see huge prices, but hopefully there will be a premium if we can do the marketing correctly.”

FOR Australian apple growers to be successful exporting their product to China, a “team effort” would be the best approach.

Lenswood grower Ashley Green says a coordinated approach, or partnership between a number of packhouses, could be beneficial for future export.

He compared the opportunity to New Zealand Kiwifruit brand Zespri, which sources its fruit from across the globe under the one marketing banner, and sells it into China, where its popularity has soared.

“I really think it needs to be a coordinated approach out of Australia rather than individuals trying to supply the market in their own right,” Mr Green said.

Leading a recent delegation in China, ANZ head of agribusiness Mark Bennett agreed with Mr Green’s theory and said the Chinese market was “enormous” in comparison to the domestic market.

“There was discussion with our growers on how we can link with someone who can gather produce, then allow volume to a market where the profit can be re-distributed to growers,” he said.

But the unanimous take-home point from the wholesalers and small and large producers who attended the trip was that Australian growers were not the only ones promoting a safe, clean, green, fresh produce label.

“What our delegation did learn in China is we are not the only ones to claim those attributes,” Mr Bennett said.