Despite having been planting with the Japanese market specifically in mind, Western Australia’s largest red grapefruit orchard – the former Rewards operation in the Ord Valley – will not ship any fruit to Japan this year.
The Ord Valley orchard’s managers have decided not to ship fruit to Japan this year because of quality concerns, reported the ABC.
“We’ve decided that we don’t want to send any fruit of inferior quality to Japan,” said orchard manager Lachlan Dobson.
“We’ve had difficulty this year with a fungicide program, and whilst we know it’ll be alright for the domestic market, we’re not sure how it would go in Japan. So rather than jeopardise our reputation on our first step into that market, we’ve decided that we’d leave it and have a go next year.
“There could well be other Australian producers who send fruit to Japan and make the most of that new market, but it won’t be us doing it.”
The Japanese market opened to red grapefruit from Western Australia after the end of the 2010 season, following years of negotiations.
The 80,000-tree Ord Valley orchard was planted specifically with the Japanese market in sight, and this season is due to produce around 1,600 tonnes.
The former Rewards Group orchard has been troubled by post-harvest hurdles this year.
Since the managed investment scheme went into receivership, the orchard has stayed under the management of the Dobson family, but has not had access to the purpose-built packing facility set up by Rewards, and has had to use borrowed equipment from other growers and packers in the region.
The grapefruit enterprise’s problems echo those of Reward’s former mango plantations in Western Australia in the run-up to that fruit’s season late last year.
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