Australian firm Seven Fields will expand its citrus portfolio this season, after extending its partnership with Abbotsleigh Citrus.
Under the deal, all Abbotsleigh’s citrus will be marketed through Seven Fields this season, allowing the grower-packer-marketer to offer lemons to its domestic market for 12 months of the year and easy-peel mandarins from March until November.
Export programmes for both companies will also be combined, meaning Abbotsleigh’s Honey Murcott mandarins will compliment Seven Fields’ navel orange and easy-peel mandarin lines in global markets.
“Being able to source such a high volume of quality produce from a diverse number of properties and facilities means that together all of the growers supplying Abbotsleigh and Seven Fields are able to benefit from building regular and long-standing relationships with citrus buyers,” Seven Fields’ head of produce marketing Brett Jackson said.
Until recently, Seven Fields managed Abbotsleigh Citrus’ Australian supermarket sales. Abbotsleigh Citrus managing partner, Michael McMahon, said the decision to consolidate all marketing activity further cements the relationship between the two companies.
“Seven Fields provide the service my supermarket customers need, and they do it in a fully transparent way where I remain in touch with the customers but am not over-burdened with the day-to-day operations,” McMahon said. This means I can get on with growing good fruit.”
Jackson said the move would ensure both businesses would continue to increase farm gate returns into the future.
“Both Abbotsleigh and Seven Fields have made big investments in permanent tree plantings and are vertically integrated,” Jackson said. “Sales and marketing strategies have to support the whole business, and it’s this long term thinking which sets us apart from many of our competitors.”
