This season's Australian citrus harvest is all but complete for South Australian company Sai World, where they are just finishing the packing of Afourer mandarins.
"We have finished with the Navels and are packing the last of the Afourer mandarins," said Sam Vasala from the company. "We have had a bit of a challenging season with a lot of blemishes on the fruit, which resulted in more class II and class III fruit.
"We have still exported to all of our main export markets, which include Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Japan. Higher blemishes were the same across the region; in fact, in most growing areas in Australia, it's just something we have to live with. "In general, it was a decent market."
Sam said the blemishes were caused by a hot summer with a lot of wind, which damaged the skin on the oranges.
© Sai World
Market demand
Demand on the domestic market has been consistent, but it is now dropping off. This is also true for the export markets; most exporters have now loaded for the autumn festival.
"We always have a bit of competition from South Africa who also has good quality fruit and cheaper input costs, but if people want South African fruit, they buy South Afr...