The citrus and table grape industries have long been the flagships of Australia’s horticultural export programmes to Asia. However, as the trade potential of the Far East becomes more apparent, more of the country’s fresh fruit and vegetable sectors are looking to grow their presence in the region.
To help facilitate this growth, Horticulture Australia’s export development programme Australia Fresh launched a trade mission to Taiwan in early December, which included representatives from Summerfruit Australia and NSW Cherry Growers.
“The mission included a trade briefing and reception with importers, along with a meeting with the Taiwanese government,” Australia Fresh programme director Agnes Barnard said. “Taiwan has developed into a particularly important market for the cherry and summerfruit industries and we are looking to leverage these opportunities.”
Improving trade relationships with China has also been a focus for Australia Fresh, who helped coordinate the fifth China-Australia Workshop on Horticultural Cooperation in Beijing recently.
Barnard says the workshop and subsequent China World Fruit and Vegetable Trade Fair helped identify opportunities for Australia’s avocado industry. “Avocados are a new product for the market and there is limited knowledge on how to use and eat them,” Barnard explained. “When given the opportunity to try Australian avocados, Chinese inquiries on how to access the product from Australia were quite strong.”
Barnard also sees China developing into a key market for Australia’s lychee industry, which is a counter-seasonal supplier to the Asian nation. While production looks to be lighter and later than last season, Australian lychees are still likely to generate demand in Asia in 2014, according to Alistair Brown of Harrowsmiths International.
“Prices are still very high, and lychees are a celebratory fruit in China so demand does increase for them around the Chinese New Year,” Brown said.
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