As the U.S. citrus season comes to a close, one Australian exporter is gearing up for what is expected to be fruitful campaign into Asian markets where there is strong demand for Navel oranges.

Seven Fields managing director Richard Byllaardt told Fresh Fruit Portal there wasn't much citrus going into Asia at the moment and the markets were hungry for the start of the Australian deal.

"They’re all pretty excited about our fruit," he said.

"The USA didn’t have such fantastic yields...but they're mainly out of the USA fruit and domestic fruit now, so there's little fruit going into Asia."

He added the major volumes from the likes of Chile and South Africa were also yet to arrive.

Byllaardt said that Seven Fields' citrus crop had fortunately been relatively unaffected by Cyclone Debbie and subsequent heavy rains that hit the state of Queensland and northern New South Wales in late March.

"It seems to have been very resilient. It hasn't really been affected," he said.

"We had a late flowering season last year, so the size is a bit smaller than a normal year. It's still okay, but definitely not going to be huge sizing.

"But the quality is very good and the rains have helped to increase the size, so this will be a very good year for citrus."

He also expected an increase in citrus volumes from the company this year, both due to additional third-party growers coming on board and younger tree coming into full production.

Seven Fields will kick off its citrus season with Navel oranges, with the exports to be largely focused on Asian markets including China and Japan.

Byllaardt said while the company had been going along with the global trend of turning more focus to easy peelers and away from Navels, significant demand in Asia had led to a rethink.

"I would say up to two years ago that was the trend we were following," he said.

"But over the last couple of years because of the demand for Navels we’ve stopped changing over anything to actually contemplating planting more Navels. We’re actually finding more growers to plant more Navels because we haven’t got enough to supply our customers."

"Easy peeler demand is still there, but demand for Navels is just unbelievable in Asia."

Seven Fields is currently picking lemons, which are mainly focused on the domestic market with some exports into the likes of Indonesia, and later on in the season the Honey Murcotts will begin.

Byllaardt said the sweet Honey Murcotts were mainly exported into Asia where they fit well with local consumers' pallets. 

"It’s a bigger piece of fruit, with seeds, tighter skin, and very very sweet. This is what the Asian markets like. In China they go crazy over them," he said.

In China the company's fruit is largely sold in wholesale markets by importers, after which it either ends up in retailers or on e-commerce platforms.

Seven Fields also exports some citrus to the U.S. market, including Navel and Cara Cara oranges.

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