Brett Pickering has resigned from his role as export sales manager for GrapeExchange, which is part of major Australian fresh produce group CostaExchange.
Pickering completed his last day with the company on Friday (18 November), after tendering his resignation four weeks ago. General manager of GrapeExchange Elliot Jones said Pickering did not cite a reason for his departure, or indicate what his next move might be.
“We’re disappointed to see him leave but this doesn’t change anything regarding our business model or our focus on exports,” Jones told Fruitnet.com. “Exports remain a major part of our business going forward.”
While GrapeExchange has yet to appoint a replacement for Pickering, Jones said the company expected to make an announcement “in the next couple of weeks”.
Pickering joined CostaExchange five years ago after running his own fresh fruit export business called BestFresh. The Mildura-based company sourced grapes, citrus, stonefruit and cherries from a wide network of growers, mainly in the Sunraysia region.
While GrapeExchange’s new season campaign is underway with production out of Queensland, Jones noted that volumes from Emerald and Mundubbera are down significantly on 2010/11.
Heavy rain and low sunshine hours that wrought havoc for Queensland’s fresh produce industry last year have affected new-season yields in both areas and a recent hail storm in Mundubbera further impacted volumes from there. Nevertheless, production from St George “looks good”, according to Jones, who does not anticipate any major shortages.
“There’ll be enough fruit, but there won’t be any large volumes until we get into St George around 10 December,” he told Fruitnet.com.
GrapeExchange's export programmes will ramp up in the New Year when production from the Sunraysia region comes on-stream, Jones added.
