NOT putting all its eggs, or mandarins as the case may be, into one basket has seen a Queensland citrus producer notch up a quarter of a century of exports.
Mundubbera's Ironbark Citrus has marked this year 25 years of mandarin exports to China, Taiwan, Japan, ASEAN (Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia), India and the Middle East.
For owner Susan Jenkin, market diversification has underpinned her business growth - spreading the risk.
"Markets can be disrupted at a moment's notice, which is what happened to us in Indonesia in 2016 and more recently with the pandemic. It reinforces the need to continuously explore new markets for our fruit," Ms Jenkin said.
Ms Jenkin's success in securing additional overseas markets was supported by a Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) Growing Queensland's Food Exports grant to conduct consumer research and promote citrus to consumers in the Philippines.
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Ms Jenkin has been able to share her learnings about the requirements and constraints of individual markets with the Queensland Citrus Exporters Group (QCEG), helping other growers in the area to increase their exports.
The QCEG, established with the support of DAF, has enabled growers to work together and market their fruit into export markets by discussing export pricing, undertaking group promotional campaigns and setting quality standards benchmarks.
"Knowledge of the requirements and constraints of individual markets is very valuable. Thanks to the grant from DAF, we were able to share our learnings with QCEG members," Ms Jenkin said.
"As individual businesses, we are quite small in the world of trade, but if we work together, we can achieve so much more."
- For more information and to explore DAF's new Agricultural Exports Dashboard, visit: www.daf.qld.gov.au/strategic-direction/datafarm/agricultural-exports
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