As the Australian citrus season gets underway, things are looking better than in previous years. Growing conditions to date have been favourable across most growing regions, compared to recent years. The 2022 and 2023 seasons were impacted by cold, wet weather. This season, the weather has remained warmer for longer across most growing regions.
"There have been some region-specific weather events that have impacted on crops, included flooding in Far North Queensland, which saw a small number of farms inundated. The bigger impact here was on transport accessibility," said Nathan Hancock, CEO of Citrus Australia.
"Western Australia has had a long period of extremely dry weather, but growers have been able to mitigate the dry period with irrigation. Fruit sizing is generally larger than what's been seen over recent seasons and firmer fruit with less external blemish is expected."
Biosecurity prevention and preparedness is a matter of upmost importance to the Australian citrus industry. Citrus Australia, with the support of Hort Innovation and Plant Health Australia, continues to invest heavily in protecting Australian shores from any major pest or disease incursion.
On-farm, Australian citrus growers continue to diligently manage their crops, helping the industry produce high-quality fruit for customers domestically and internationally.
Volumes in line with previous seasons
"It's too early in the season to put a figure on production volumes for oranges and mandarins. However, if the favourable growing conditions hold, growers are confident of producing a high-quality crop that exceeds production volumes of recent seasons. Lemon, lime and grapefruit production volumes are tracking in line with previous seasons.
"Valencia orange production is predicted to be lower than recent seasons, due to climatic conditions and the impacts of slow harvesting in previous seasons."
Planted area is increasing, reaching 31,000ha (nationally) in 2023, up 7 per cent from 2022. Australia's total citrus production in 2022/23 exceeded 815,000 tonnes, valued at over A$970m. It is predicted that production will reach1.2 million tonnes within the next five years.
Export markets
In 2023, China/Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea were the leading markets for Australian orange exports by volume. Thailand, China/Hong Kong and Indonesia were the leading markets (by volume) for mandarins in 2023.
"We expect to see further growth in China over the next few years as diplomatic relations continue to improve, and as China works through its post-pandemic economic recovery. Japan continues to show strong demand for Australian citrus, particularly for oranges."
In 2023, the Australian industry exported over 10,000 tonnes of citrus to South Korea for the first time. These increased shipments have been hard gains up against a range of technical barriers, but we are confident of breaking through those barriers, so we see a promising future in this market too.
For more information:
Matt Jones
Citrus Australia Ltd
Tel: +61 448213330
[email protected]
www.citrusaustralia.com.au