Citrus Australia CEO, Nathan Hancock, tells Asiafruit how the industry body is putting a spotlight on the category’s health benefits, which go far beyond that of the well-known Vitamin C
Can you start off sharing an outlook for the Australian 2026 season?
Nathan Hancock: In general, things are looking good at the start of harvest for most of our export varieties. Queensland, in particular, has set a very good crop and is looking very positive both from the volume of fruit and also the quality. In the southern part of Australia, we’ve probably had a little bit more of a challenging spring. And then we had a couple of very big, very impactful heat waves during summer, which did slow things down. But [that was followed by] quite a lot of rain, which made things catch up a bit. In Western Australia, they’ve had relatively good growing conditions throughout the season.
[Overall], we’ve seen quite good, tree ripening in terms of the colour. The internal maturity is very good because of the warm summer that we’ve had. Fruit size is down about a size and a half [from last year] but that’s probably beneficial. The fruit was probably on the larger size last year, which, given the economic environment we’re trading in is less attractive to some of our customers. So, our size range is actually quite good. It benefited from those big rain events we had during summer, which is positive.
But weather does have quite a big impact. And I think probably the thing that’s most evident is that there’s been quite a lot of wind rub on some of our earlier varieties, which means there’s probably less first grade fruit in those earlier varieties which puts a bit of pressure on the pricing for those really premium markets.
Which markets are going to be the standouts for exports this season, with that in mind?
NH: We have a very strong export programme into South East and East Asia. China (including Hong Kong) and Japan will be key markets as always. But Thailand and Korea will also be strong. Vietnam is also a market that’s growing in importance for us. We also have a small but important market in the US and Canada.
By having a diverse range of markets, we’re able to sell a much greater quantity of our fruit. With the size of our domestic market at only 25mn people it’s not enough to support our industry. Having key markets throughout Asia is our focus and our intention is to keep growing.
Easy peeler and mandarin varieties are becoming more popular across Asia, but Australian exports are still led by navel oranges. Is this changing at all?
NH: Our key export is the navel orange. Murcott out of Queensland has been our leading export mandarin variety, but that’s been challenged by the southern part of Australia’s plantings of W Murcott, which is a Murcott type that is a little bit easier to peel. Its flavour profile is slightly more tangy than a [traditional] Murcott, which appeals more to people who like sweet fruit.
We’ve got a good mix of varieties that can meet a range of different markets. But it is important that we keep growing our easy peel, or mandarin, exports, because that’s where we see the most growth coming in our plantings.
We’re speaking off the back of Hort Connections, as well as the annual Australian Citrus Congress earlier this year. Were there any major developments or key themes that arose from those industry gatherings?
NH: We try to take the time to paint a picture of the economic environment that we’re in, which is the thing that really dictates our overall success as an industry. It plays a big part in where we’ll be profitable and where things will be much tighter.
When you take into account the global cost of living crisis, which I don’t think is talked about enough, every country is going through a similar situation to Australia. In terms of households finding it more difficult we’re not the only commodity in this situation.
Once we understand where we are, we can talk about where our opportunities lie. For example, markets where there’s an appreciation for quality, an appreciation for safe produce. How best can we position ourselves to market that to those consumers?
Whether it be around the integrity of our fruit, whether it be around the provenance of our fruit, or the nutritional value.
We’ve done a lot of research through Hort Innovation projects that look at the nutritional value of citrus and how it’s much more than Vitamin C. It has a whole range of benefits to human health that are under the radar and we’re trying to expose those a little bit more. Citrus is very important for brain health, for heart health, for a range of other things. We are really trying to focus on those benefits and talk about those within industry so that they can become things that we market and project about our industry.
That then leads into, well, how do you grow the best quality citrus you can? As an industry we’ve been looking at the way trees are structured and whether we can be more productive or grow better produce.
We’ve also looked at irrigation scheduling and how we can increase the flavour profile of our products so that they’re very appealing and consumers seek them out.
This interview appears in the Tropicals edition of Asiafruit Magazine, for more coverage on Australian citrus subscribe HERE.
