International demand may lead to citrus shortages in Australia
"At our current planting rate, we are going to have an issue where we do not have enough oranges to meet demand," Marketing and quality information manager Nathan Hancock said
"Just based now purely theoretically with the model we are using, we can see that if we were not to plant any more oranges in the next few years, we will be starting to affect our ability to supply our current markets, and at the moment we are trying to grow our markets. There is real opportunity for clever planting of certain varieties."
He also sees this rise in demand as a positive if the Australia's citrus industry invests in other varieties like easy peel mandarins which have developed a growing popularity with consumers.
"I think that is probably the growing market for the consumer is a seedless, easy peel piece of fruit that is easy to eat," Riverland grower Philip Kroehn said.
source: abc.net.au
