THE citrus industry is bracing for a high increase in fruit production, heightening the importance of the export trade.
Several speakers at the Citrus Technical Forum 2022 at the Sunshine Coast on March 8-9 alluded to big crop volumes in years to come and therefore the need for a strong export strategy.
Citrus Australia chief executive officer Nathan Hancock said the Australian industry had long been an export-focused industry, and off the back of new plantings the volume of fruit will continue to rise.
He said maintaining current export markets and a push to expand markets was essential and that fruit quality and adherence to protocols remained critical.
"Australian citrus is renowned for its high quality, and that takes effort, it means good management practices," he said.
"We trade on our high quality and we must deliver on it to ensure good outturns in our export markets which will continue to be affected by disruptions to shipping routes".
It was a sentiment reflected by another speaker, EE Muir & Sons consultancy lead Matt Strmiska who spoke on international dealings within horticulture.
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"The quality of fruit that hits the market has to be exceptional," Mr Strmiska said.
The forum saw the launch of the 2021 Citrus Australia Tree Census however it was kept in-house due to the potentially sensitive nature of the information within.
The census is an online database developed by Citrus Australia to collect national production statistics about variety, rootstock, tree age and hectares planted.
The 2019 census captured 1262 orchards covering 26,907 hectares. Generally, previous census reports have shown a steady increase in acreage and fruit output.
The 2020/21 Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook reported that for the year ending June 2021, Australia produced 708,827 tonnes of citrus, valued at $936.3 million.
The wholesale value of the fresh supply was $668m with $571m distributed into retail and $114m into food service.
A total of 238,576t was exported in that period, at a value of $442m.
While no specific figures were given, Mr Hancock's forecast for 2022 was that the season was looking positive, with a good crop of fruit in most growing regions.
"We've had good growing conditions across the country, there's usual challenges with wind rub that occurs in spring, but in all likelihood a very good production season," he said.
"At this stage, as we've heard, it won't be without its challenges, and there may be markets we can't supply due to shipping issues, but we'll have to maintain a watching brief, we simply don't know what the impacts of Covid and the ongoing war in Ukraine will do to reliability of sea freight this season."
He described the US citrus production as being in very short supply this year which traditionally meant Australian citrus would have a good start to the season as export markets would be "empty" and demand will be strong.
However the Ukrainian war may also have an impact global citrus trade.
He said that whilst fresh fruit was exempt from trade sanctions, South Africa may have to consider what it will do with this fruit as Russia's economy was under extreme pressure, and traders were shut out of SWIFT.
"Our hearts go out to those people affected by this conflict and we hope it is resolved quickly," Mr Hancock said.
"From a market perspective, South Africa, the largest citrus exporter in the southern hemisphere, supplies over 150,000 tonnes of citrus to Russia, which could be displaced due to the conflict, they have over 90 markets to export to, but we expect there'll be an impact".
Forum presenter Rabobank senior analyst Mick Harvey said the global economy had lost a little bit of steam and some of the regular markets would be smaller than they were pre-covid.
He said the issue surrounding shipping container delays will echo through to citrus exports.
"Those global supply chain bottlenecks will continue for some time," Mr Harvey said.
He said the conflict in Europe had created some large storm clouds over global food markets, with COVID-19 driving the global economy.
"This will lead to elevated supply chain risks for producers in Australia in the form of higher input costs and less supply chain reliability," Mr Harvey said.
For citrus specifically, Mr Harvey said the industry's key markets were in reasonable shape but with some risks and headwinds in some markets.
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