Western Australia is on the verge of exporting red grapefruits to Japan after meeting quarantine standards against fruit fly threats, national media group ABC reported.

The story said the state’s Ord Valley region was gearing up to export from its plantation with 80,000 trees under the control of administrators and receivers, after previous owners Rewards Group fell under last year.

Ord Grower Lachlan Dobson predicts a crop of more than 1,600 metric tonnes (MT), with hopes for a premium grapefruit price in Japan, the ABC reported.

"The opportunity is there for a premium price, but it may not be for the individual growers because they haven't got the critical mass, but there might be a consolidation-type agent in Perth, who could build up the container numbers and export them then,” Dobson was quoted as saying.

“Fremantle is the cheapest port we can get the containers to, but I've been working with the development of the Wyndham Port, and hopefully as our production increases, the opportunity will be there to export directly out of Wyndham."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country around the Victorian towns of Mildura and Swan Hill, there has been an outbreak of fruit flies, the ABC reported.

Victorian Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh told the news agency that the fruit flies would have come from somewhere else and survived due to ideal climatic conditions.

He advised travellers through the area not to bring fruit that could have fruit flies in it.

Photo: Flickr, Image Editor

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com