Australian farmers are seeing ‘a terrible waste’ of produce, with truckloads of healthy oranges being dumped across the country. About 1500 semi-trailers full of what seem like perfectly fine oranges have been dumped at sites around the nation, while orange orchards filled with ripe fruit are also being slashed to pieces.

This season has been Griffith citrus grower Vito Mancini's worst in 40 years. The wet conditions have resulted in most of his oranges not meeting supermarket specifications and he has dumped 300 tons of his crop so far. Manseri, from Griffith in the NSW Riverina said farmers are “heartbroken and at the mercy of supermarkets and fussy shoppers, who are demanding pretty fruit.”

With food prices rising in the supermarkets and interest rates affecting consumers, demand is also in decline, but the main problems are the cost of picking and ongoing difficulties with sea freight. For growers like Mancini it makes more financial sense to dump fruit than pay people to pick it.

Export problems
Quality issues are not the only thing affecting exports. There are still problems with sea freight caused by a shortage of containers and global delays in shipping around the world.

Nathan Hancock from Citrus Australia said demand was strong in Asian markets, but growers have had enormous problems getting fruit onto ships during the pandemic because ships had been sailing past Australian ports.

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com