Australian citrus has met with strong demand in the US so far this season, despite stiff market competition and an unfavourable exchange rate, reports freshfruitportal.com.
Stu Monaghan of US importer DNE World Fruit Sales told the website that US market response to Australian navels and easy peelers had been 'outstanding' this year.
He revealed that, although Australian citrus volumes are down due to the unfavourable Australian-US dollar exchange rate, shippers were sending enough fruit to maintain a foothold in the US market. And the high quality of Australian navels meant they were holding their own in the US marketplace, despite competition from late Californian navels and early Chilean arrivals.
'The navel programme has gone very well so far this year, and while volumes are down from last year, prices are stable and the quality is good,' he is quoted as saying.
Mr Monaghan said Australia is on track to ship over 700,000 cartons of navels to the US this season, and praised Australian grower-shippers' commitment to the US market in the face of existing challenges.
'When you translate `returns` into Australian dollars, it's less than they need to get by,' he said. 'Their level of commitment to keep market share in the US and to have a respectable programme even though the Californians were late, and even if the Chileans shipped more than 2m containers, is outstanding.'
Mr Monaghan added: ' We have other programmes out of Australia that are going well. Daisy tangerines have been outstanding. Minneolas have had high colour and they're great tasting as well. We'll have Aussie sweet mandarins put in 3lb bags in September to compete with late clementines.'
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