Australian citrus

The popularity of Australian navel oranges in the US has meant that an additional 350,000 boxes are being shipped to the country this season.

According to ABC Rural, the fruit is heading for high-end US supermarkets despite the difficulties that growers have faced this season, including drought in production regions and strong competition from the likes of Chile, Peru and South Africa.

Peter Walker, chairman of Riversun Exports, said that the strong reputation of the country's navel oranges in the US meant that high-end stores would continue to purchase the fruit, in turn achieving a better profit.

'Because our fruit is very expensive, because of the growing costs in Australia, we obviously have higher returns for the growers to achieve a profit,' Mr Walker told ABC Rural. 'The demographic we hit are the high-end supermarkets to try and realise those returns.'