Tasmania-based fruit grower-packer-exporter Hansen Orchards plans to send trial shipments of Pink Lady and Fuji apples to three Asian markets this year.
Hansen Orchards managing director, Howard Hansen, said that forecast of high production volumes across Australia, coupled with a favourable economic conditions, has encouraged his company to test the waters with Pink Lady in Asia, which remains a relatively small market for the club variety.
“All regions of Australia have got a bigger crop than last year and we're nervous about the increase in supply and the pressure on prices,' Hansen told ABC Rural. 'With the drop in the Australian dollar we feel we've got a real chance of selling apples into the Asian Market. Pink Lady is a different taste profile to what the Asian market normally likes, so it's an experiment to see if the market will take to the Pink Lady apple.”
Hansen said the initial plan is to send around 70 cartons but this could grow to a full container if there was enough interest.
