Australia's cherry growers may have lost a key market due to Russia's ban on the country's food products, but the industry is confident that other destinations will be found for the popular fruit.

Cherry Growers Australia (CGA) chief executive officer Simon Boughey told www.freshfruitportal.com the potential value of his country's cherry exports to Russia could have been AUD$1.5-2 million (US$1.4-1.86 million) next season.

"But for about 100 [metric] tons will be easy to find other markets in Asia, the Middle East and Europe," he said.

He emphasized that Australia's temporarily lost cherry trade with Russia was counterseasonal, selling fruit during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

"There could be a shortage, but New Zealand and Chile might fill the gap," he said.

"We will go back in once the ban lifted in 12 months."

Earlier this week, New South Wales Cherry Growers Association head Scott Coupland told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that while growers from his state only shipped 66 metric tons (MT) of the fruit to Russia last year, the market had huge potential.

"They'll actually import up to 80,000 tonnes of cherries and the potential is enormous, given when we do produce cherries there's no one else in the world producing cherries at that same time," Coupland was quoted as saying.

"Cherry exports into Russia only amount to about 2 per cent of our export market.

"However, given the fact that we produce a lot of mangoes, stone fruit, apples are coming on stream, that puts a bit of pressure on the domestic market and can pull the price down if it stays on the domestic market."

According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Russia imported 71,982MT worth of cherries in 2011.

In that year, thie figure made Russia the top export market for the fruit, followed by China at 67,861MT.

Click here to read more from our coverage of the Russian ban situation.

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