AU: Stone fruit needs to be in Asian markets
Goulburn Valley growers would be able to better capitalise on ripe export opportunities if the necessary protocols were more expediently developed.
Greater Shepparton City Council chief Peter Harriott and Mayor Dinny Adem recently met with Federal Government advisors in Canberra, where they raised free trade between China and Australia and in particular queried the ‘‘status of protocol talks’’.
‘‘Our particular interest is in stone fruit, apples, cherries, plums,’’ Mr Harriott said.
‘‘We’re wanting to identify where they sit in the priority order.’’
Mr Harriott hoped protocols for different stone fruits were not too far off being advanced and plums in particular sat higher on the list of priorities.
Fruit Growers Victoria’s Gary Godwill described China as a difficult market to crack and one stone fruits had not been able to access ‘‘on a grand scale at this point’’, adding it was ‘‘not impossible’’.
Mooroopna orchardist Peter Hall described the lack of protocols as ‘‘a barrier’’.
‘‘Most of the fruit we grow here, we don’t have a protocol for, as yet,’’ he said. ‘‘Industry and government are working on getting protocols for other fruits.’’
Mr Hall believed there was always a place for advocacy on the issue and encouraged the Federal Government to allocate more resources to it.
‘‘I think it’s significant,’’ he said.
‘‘If we could get protocols for those other (fruits), it would significantly lift plantings of those varieties, a shift that would prove good for the region.’’
Late last year northern Victorian stone fruit growers had hoped to see improved prices for their nectarines after shipments began to China.
It had followed the Federal Government and summer fruit industry in securing a new export protocol for nectarines to China in May last year.
Cr Adem said the council had been pushing for the protocols, understood plums and apricots were next in line, hoped for them to be in play by as early as next season and believed they had the potential to significantly boost local production.
Federal Member for Murray Damian Drum said stone fruit would be ‘‘one of the very next we’re going to start negotiating with’’.
Source: www.sheppnews.com.au
