The citrus harvest in Victoria, Australia is looking to be inline with last year according to Richard Byllaardt from Seven Fields."The Navels will be early due to an extremely hot summer, but the dry weather has now broken. We had 40mm of rain a couple of weeks ago which should help to increase the sizing of the fruit. There has not been any frost yet, but some good temperature differentials would be welcome to colour up the fruit."
First Navelinas were picked on the 11th of May but just in small volumes, the main crop will be in 2-3 weeks depending on the weather.
Overall volumes should be similar to last year with probably less Navel and more mandarins, but yields are very inconsistent through the region.
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Seven Fields will send about 200 containers of Navels and Honey Murcotts to China and Japan. The company also supplies the US, EU, Canada, New Zealand and other south-east Asian countries, as well as the domestic markets.
"There is huge demand from Japan and China and we could send a lot more fruit if we had it available to us" said Richard.
US local citrus production has been late this season, so the Australian fruit will only start to arrive there from early July up to late September.
Seven Fields invests a lot to get top quality fruit, more than most other Aussie growers, according to Richard, and our customers recognise our quality. Growing conditions and soil types in the Mildura region are very similar to Southern California and Israel where they also grow top class fruit.
One of these investments is in netting, "It is a big investment," explains Richard. "But we get higher packouts. With netting it is 80% plus rather than the normal 60% so pay back is quick."
Seven Fields have also bought all the budding wood available in their region this year for blood oranges, as there is a big demand in the UK, US and China.
The company has also invested in a state of the art packhouse which was built three years ago by MAF Roda and is one of the most advanced in the southern hemisphere. The whole pre-grade area can run with just 5 people.
Labour costs are big issues facing Australian growers just now, another is water supply. The back packer's tax which the current government want to introduce is a big concern on the supply of labour and water is becoming more and more expensive.
It seems that only the crops which have good market returns can afford to survive, the biggest casualty is wine grapes; the return to growers is below the cost of production and throughout the region vines are being left to die or are being pulled out and replanted with citrus or table grapes.
For more information:
Richard Byllaardt
Sevenfields
Phone: +61 3 5002 0502
E-mail: Richard.Byllaardt@sevenfields.com.au
Website: www.sevenfields.com.au