National Horticultural Research Network - Horticulture Industry ...

National Horticultural Research Network
Fruit Sector RD&E Framework September 2010
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In the Murray/Murrumbidgee districts water availability and climate change are key issues to be
addressed through evaluation of existing rootstocks for drought and heat tolerance. Climate change
and availability of water for irrigation may push production north into Qld and other northern
Australian States with more secure water supply.
Market access (overcoming fruit fly issues) remains a major issue for the industry.
Grapes
Table grapes: A key issue is the need for new/better varieties to provide a point of product
differentiation. Other issues are increasing productivity and packouts and reducing costs to obtain a
competitive unit cost ($/kg) as just under 50% of the crop is exported. On export markets
competitiveness against cheaper producers is a key issue. Strategies to reduce labour costs are
important as many aspects of crop production are labour intensive. As export is a major market,
market access remains a key driver for table grapes.
Dried Vine Fruits: Imports of around 20,000t dry weight (this is equivalent to total domestic
production) from low-production-cost countries provides strong competition on the domestic market.
New technology to significantly reduce costs, increase quality and provide points of product
differentiation has been developed - but local production is limited due to low cost imports.
Avocados: Rapid national expansion suggests that the domestic market is not yet fully supplied.
Exports must increase significantly in the short to medium term to maintain prices during this
expansion phase. Production is currently expanding at 300-500 ha per year. A major threat is lower
cost imports from major global producers such as Chile, Peru and Mexico. Issues include competition
with imports on a cost and quality basis and improving consistency of shelf life of the Hass variety (a
significant proportion of fruit purchased is discarded due to postharvest deterioration problems). The
potential exists for a significant reduction in rot problems by the development and adoption of better
rootstocks.
Persimmons
The Australian market is flat while export has declined about 13% over the last 5 years. Export
demand exists but is hampered by production and storage issues that see the fruit having a short shelf
life.
Commonalities: The adoption of new varieties and rootstocks play an important role for citrus, table
grapes and avocados. Cost pressures are an issue for all crops in this group, as is improved and new
market access.
1.1.3 Tropical Fruits
Table 3 shows the production by State of tropical fruit for 2002 and 2007. Bananas and pineapples are
the dominant fruit grown at a national level in this grouping, comprising 47% and 36% respectively of
tropical fruit production in 2007.
Table 3: Production data for sub-tropical and tropical fruits.
Crop/year NSW Qld WA NT Total
Pineapple, 2007 (t) 164,691 164,691
Pineapple, 2002(t) 119,322 119,322
Mango, 2007 (t) 17 41,478 2,515 13,937 57,947
Mango, 2002 (t) 259 32,361 2,281 6,071 40,973
Banana, 2007 (t) 19,017 188,653 3,822 1,701 213,193
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