International demand has lit a fire under Australia’s mandarin exports over the past month, with some traders labelling the demand “unprecedented” in the wake of short supplies from other suppliers.
The frosts late last month, which damaged a significant portion of the citrus crop in South America, particularly Argentina, have left the market short of Murcott mandarins and similar varieties. The shortage has transferred extra interest to an Australian crop already looking at strong demand throughout Asia.
“Demand on mandarins is unprecedented, I haven’t seen a year like it before,” stated Chris Deveney of Queensland exporter Favco. “I think a lot of it is hinging on the frost damage in South America. We’ve never seen demand as big as it is this year.
“There was demand for the early mandarins, but not like this. Since that frost in South America, everyone is looking to Australia to replace those sales.”
Prices are holding slightly higher than the same period last year, which were no slouches themselves, traders told Asiafruit.
“I don’t expect these prices to hold, but we’ll run with them as long as it keeps going,” said Neil Barker of exporter BGP International. “The next three weeks will still be OK, until the first large volumes start hitting the market, and then we’ll see what the response is like.”
China is rapidly becoming the key regional market for Australian mandarins, and the crop this year appears to be attracting good levels of attention.
“China is a big market for Australian Murcott mandarins and will definitely be the main destination of the crop this year,” explained Saxon Call of exporter CSI Brisbane.
“There must be half a dozen Chinese buyers visiting Australia at the moment to see the citrus, so they obviously believe the opportunities are good,” added Barker.
Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the Middle East are also shaping up as promising markets this season, and Deveney added there was demand across Asia for both Class 1 and composite fruit.
Australia’s early mandarin sales are now out of the way and the season is moving into the meat of the Murcott volumes from Queensland. The first packouts of the Honey Murcott variety will go through this week.
Overall crop volume for the Australian mandarin season is looking to be roughly equivalent to last year, but fruit size will be on average slightly smaller than the previous season on average, although some growers are reporting larger fruit. Quality across all citrus varieties has been looking excellent since the beginning of the Australian season.
