Australian mandarin growers warned not to pick early
Citrus Australia's manager of quality and market information Nathan Hancock said in the long run it worked against the industry as poor-quality fruit turned off some customers for the entire season.
"The fruit typically isn't ready to eat and the impact of picking too early is that the fruit does not colour up very well and it's not very appealing to look at and consumers use their eyes a lot of the time to make their first decision," he said.
"If they're not going to pick that piece up off the shelf then it's going to slow down pull-through in the market place."
The market for imperials has "matured" to the point where it is on average oversupplied by about 10,000 tonnes a year and Mr Hancock said consumers simply would not absorb extra volume.
Citrus Australia was working with growers to try to eliminate the amount of fruit picked early through a pass-to-pick program requiring fruit to meet certain standards before it could be harvested, and on longer-term solutions for the overall problem of market maturation, such as removing unproductive trees and investigating new rootstocks and varieties.
source: abc.net.au
