THE NORTH American distributors for Australian citrus exports say Chiles last-minute decision to pull out of Europe and Japan and swamp the US market with cheap navel oranges could not have been predicted or avoided.
Chiles opportunistic raid cut across a gentlemens agreement by Australian and South African citrus growers to divide the US market: Australia sells to retailers in the western US, while South Africa targets the east.
The huge volume of Chilean fruit, which included mandarins as well as navels, collapsed retail prices across the US, costing Sunraysia and SA Riverland citrus growers millions of dollars.
Representatives of Florida-based DNE World Fruit Sales and the Vancouver-based Oppenheimer Group flew into Mildura last week to brief local growers on the 2009 US export season.
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