Citrus dumped by tonne

WEEKLY TIMES

UPDATE: HUNDREDS of tonnes of citrus is being dumped in the Riverina and Sunraysia after an oversupply of juice fruit.

The high Australian dollar and a lack of demand for navels in juicing has been blamed for the glut.

Fruit Juice Australia chief executive Geoff Parker said dumping was happening because there had been a late, bumper crop of navel oranges, which were unsuitable for juicing.

"Less than 5 per cent of juice can come from navels because they're too bitter,'' Mr Parker said.

"What we need is Valencias and Australia just isn't growing the amount we need for juicing so we are importing a lot of fruit concentrate.''

Mr Parker said the Australian Juice Industry had a 500,000-tonne demand for Valencias, only half of which was met locally.

He also said juice was suffering from an image problem in Australia, with consumers seeing it as too sugary.

Fruit Growers Victoria general manager John Wilson said he was not surprised to hear of the dumping, after a "serious" citrus oversupply the past two years.

Grower Gary McCarten, whose farm is between Mildura and Wentworth, said he will have dumped nearly 40 per cent of his produce by the end of the season.

"This year we've already dumped hundreds of tonnes,'' Mr McCarten said.

"Growers are faced with selling the fruit for juice at $45 a tonne, when it cost them $56 a tonne just to pick it, let alone produce it.

"So many people would rather feed livestock with it than make the juicers rich while we're going down the gurgler.

"This is one of the worst years because the high dollar has meant imported concentrate is so much cheaper." 

Growers are charged to dump the oranges the citrus marketing companies can't sell.

"You can't keep it until you find a buyer because your cool stores will fill up," Mr McCarten said.

"It's easier to dump it and have the livestock eat it so you don't have to bother treating it for fruit fly.

"It's sad that what used to go to juicing is now sheep feed."

Citrus Australia chief executive Judith Damiani said fruit was often dumped due to a lack of demand, but it only represented about 2 per cent of production.

It is expected it could take up to five years before the Australian citrus industry can reduce its oversupply of navel oranges in the domestic market.

National grower group general manager Andrew Harty said, for the situation to improve, growers had to switch varieties and reduce production by 50,000 tonnes.