The Australian cherry industry has been able to offset some of the impacts of Vietnamese and Russian import bans with substantial sales growth across all other markets, most notably in South Korea and the Middle East.

Cherry Growers Australia CEO Simon Boughey told www.freshfruitportal.com that after South Korea's cut of 24% tariffs on Australian cherries in December - stemming from an FTA signed last year - growers were able to find new opportunities.

"With that and the drop in the Australian dollar we went from 10 [metric] tons (MT) to over 250MT...there's also a lot of work the industry's done in Korea in the last few years to tap in to this market," he said.

"Tasmania is the only Australian state that can go into Korea but the Koreans are wanting fruit right across the seasons, so they're doing an IRA (import risk assessment) to allow for market access and market improvement for cherries from Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

"While people are saying 'that's great getting the cherries in from Tasmania', we want the Australian cherry industry to provide three months' supply from the beginning of November right through to January - the driver is to get market improvement into Thailand, Korea, China and Taiwan."

He said that even though mainland Australian cherry growers had registered for exports to mainland China, which requires cold treatment of the fruit, most fruit only came from Tasmania as the state enjoys pest-free area (PFA) status.

"I think probably around 300MT went in to China, roughly. That's up from about 150MT last year," he said.

"Demand is really strong out of China, but because the Chileans put so much fruit in there the market really cooled off, even for our fruit. That’s something we’ll need to look at but again we are getting requests for supply three months out of Australia into China and we need market improvement to achieve this.

"I’m sure out of Australia we could probably put 700-1,000MT extra into China if we could get the areas out of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria to get much more commercially-oriented market improvement, and we need to get the Riverland PFA [pest free area] recognized too ."

He said traditional markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia were also very strong, but the industry was aiming to broaden its scope in new non-protocol regions.

"Into December we'd sent about 135MT into the Middle East, and that's up basically 100%," he said.

"We've really worked hard with exporters in our industry that there are a lot more markets out there than just protocol markets where you can sell your fruit," he said.

"I think the direct route in through Qantas and Emirates has helped , and the good thing about this is you can on-slide into all the other countries around Europe."

He said he was expecting final season figures in around mid-April, but preliminary estimates indicated total shipments of 3,500-4,000MT for the season, representing a rise of 25-30%.

One of the strongest growth rates recorded in the six months to December was Vietnam, with an intake that jumped 145% to 144MT, however that prospective market was lost on Jan. 1 after the country banned all Australian fruit in the market.

"A lot of this is linked to the Vietnamese not having fruit exports to Australia – it's not just particular product, but it has to be trade versus trade. That was certainly raised when the Australian and Vietnam departments met recently in Vietnam, that they're certainly looking for trade into Australia with mangoes, litchis and dragon fruit. The governments are hoping to have all this sorted by May," he said.

"Australia has very high standards when it comes to biosecurity. No one is arguing it, but the industries are quite happy to have imports into the country, so long as they meet the quarantine and agreed requirements so we don’t have any biosecurity problems.

"We've just got a bit smarter in what's happening around Asia, because it can change very quickly and we just have to be able to adapt to that; if Asian countries or others make changes, we have to be able to make changes very quickly and not have bans in place. January is the worst time for cherries as it is smack bang in the middle of the season, and this year was the second time in three years that the cherry industry has had to deal with that," he said, referring to similar actions that happened in Thailand three years ago.

Boughey concluded by highlighting the industry was continuously working with the Department of Agriculture on market opportunities and plant export operations.

"We are just about to start planning for the 2015-16 season. The demand is there for the high quality Australian cherry from across all the growing regions in the country and linked to our innovative Biosecurity Management Plan frame work our industry will work towards a full range of airfreight options to all our global markets and ensure that Australian cherries are free of pests and diseases of quarantine concern," he said.

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