With Australian navel exporters renewing their focus on the US market this season, the ability to quickly drive repeat purchases will be crucial, according to Andrew Harty, Citrus Australia’s market development manager.
Harty said beautiful looking fruit often inspires the initial purchase, but it is the eating quality of the offering that brings customers back for more. He believed US consumers would have no reservations about continuing to buy Australian navels once they had tasted them.
“We understand that for a supply chain to work for all parties, the most important factor is the ability to generate repeat purchases,” Harty explained. “We all know that every square foot of retail shelf is valuable real estate that continually has to earn its living for the store, so you want to make sure the product on that shelf will keep turning over as fast as possible. Australian navels will do this for you.”
Australia’s diverse citrus growing regions are widely acknowledged as ideal for bringing out an intense flavour and a deep orange rind colour in navels. Harty said the industry was also making significant investments in research and development to continually improve the flavour profile of its crop.
“We have conducted large-scale consumer taste panels over the past few years, and have figured out what makes an exceptional tasting orange,” Harty explained. “Interestingly, our results mirrored those found in similar studies undertaken by the Californian orange industry. This is all good news for the US citrus supply chain, and most importantly, for US customers buying Australian oranges.”
