AU: China cherry market not in full blossom?
Tasmanian cherry growers were granted access to the China market last year, after the Premier brokered a deal with Chinese quarantine authorities during an earlier trade mission to Asia. But with the lack of an Australia-China free trade agreement and high cost of labour and freight, the picture isn't as rosy as some might think.
Australia being so uncompetitive internationally in a high value, labour intensive product like cherries it will get more difficult every year to compete. We've got a currency disadvantage, we've got an import duty disadvantage, we've got 10 to 15 times the labour cost disadvantage and we can't afford to get them across Bass Strait. If we're sea shipping it costs us twice as much to get fruit from here to Melbourne than it does to get from Melbourne to anywhere in Asia," Mr Hansen said.
The long standing fruit grower says that going to these events puts Tasmania's place in the market into perspective. "At an event like this we're not even a grain of sand on the beach in terms of the products and volumes that are there, we're niche players only...
Tasmania produces less than 3,500 - 4000 tonnes of export cherries, which is nothing in the world scene. Our nearest competitor in Chile, they're production is increasing by more than 20,000 tonnes a year," he said.
Source: abc.net.au
