Customers have expressed their intentions when it comes to frozen berries, and Australian grower and supplier Lee-Anne Yewers has been doing her best to meet increasing demand following the Hepatitis A scare from contaminated berries imported from China. “We had products in here four weeks ago, and it went beserk. Now I’m sold out. The blueberries are gone. Our first crop of blackberries, I had some in the freezer, we’ve sold out of them,” she says.
The word from Mrs Yewers’ customers is that they fully intent to keep buying Australian grown frozen berries, or perhaps freezing their own, however she remains skeptical that the craze will last once the contamination scare is out of peoples’ minds. “Some people will definitely go back to buying the Chinese frozen berries, as it's a case of convenience.”
The reaction customers have had has been a revelation to Mrs Yewers, who is aware that other farmers around the country may be throwing out their second grade berries. “Lots of people definitely are horrified by what they’ve been buying,” she says. “We have to jump through hoops here to make sure everything is perfect, but the same standards don’t apply to what’s imported, and companies bypass the labeling laws by bringing produce [from China] through New Zealand.”
Australian frozen berry industry ‘not viable’
There will always be a demand for imported frozen berries, and the Chinese market will always play a part in that, according to frozen berry importer Avrom Gamaroff, who runs FrozBerries: “There just is no commercial quantity available. To grow blueberries, for example, we cannot make it as cheap as the Americans, the Chinese, or the Canadians. Woolworths is charging $43 per kilogram for fresh blueberries, but they’re packed in 125 gram punnets. As a farmer, why would you freeze berries?” Mr Gamaroff also notes that in South East Asia, fresh berries can sell for as much as $20AUD per 125g punnet, or $160 per kilo, so there is no incentive to freeze and sell berries locally.
“The Chinese market will always be there. The government’s not going to do anything about it,” notes Mr Gamaroff. “We might pick up some farmgate produce. One guy in Tasmania might have 500kg, but that’s hobby stuff. Not something you can supply to people on an ongoing basis.” Mrs Yewers agrees with this sentiment, adding that the big supermarket chains, Woolworths or Coles, will go through tens of thousands of bags of frozen berries per week. “Supermarkets have to meet certain price points. If you’re pushed for price, you’ll go for Chinese strawberries, or Vietnam, soon maybe even Cambodia,” adds Mr Gamaroff.
When importing frozen berries Mr Gamaroff is also quick to point out that he does source extremely high quality, often from countries with a similar standard to Australia, such as Canada, where large quantities can be imported on container ships for less than $4-5 per kilo, and sold for less. “The industry is always going to be biased towards imports. We’ve got pricing now out of Europe, Spain for example. All you can do is get produce from reliable suppliers.”
For more information
Lee-Anne Yewers
Berry Sweet Strawberry Farm
Phone: +61895711077
E-mail: berries@iinet.net.au
Avrom Gamaraff
FrozBerries
Phone: +612 9987 0888
E-mail: sales@frozberries.com.au
Website: www.frozberries.com.au