According to the Citrus Australia, the Australian citrus industry is in a boom period right now, with profits doubling or trebling. The CEO of Citrus Australia, Nathan Hancock, said that the total amount of Australian citrus reached 273 thousand tons last year, or 25% of the total imported into China.
He pointed out that this year, the harvest season started in May and export volumes have continuously increased. It is expected that the demand will exceed the supply in the market during this season. Currently, the market for Australian citrus is mainly the southern coastal areas but, in the densely populated cities, there's also a potential market for the imported citrus.
Mr. Hancock said that, in order to meet the demands of the Chinese market, Citrus Australia has cooperated and "made lots of efforts" with the growers and merchants. In places like Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and West Australia, the total cultivation area of citrus trees has reached 25.000 hectares, 9,200 out of which have completed the registration and are waiting to be exported to China.
However, he didn't hide his worries about the current fragile international order and the frequent problems of China-Australia bilateral trade agreements. "I'm not the only one who worries about this, he said, "we can't do anything about how politics works. What we can do is to persuade the government not to 'place obstacles in the way'".
Source: ACBNews