Citrus rises from ashes to threaten glut

AUSTRALIA is pushing the US to relax quarantine controls on fruit imports.

AUSTRALIA is pushing the US to relax quarantine controls on fruit imports.

The move is due partly to the astonishing recovery of central Queensland's citrus industry from one of the worst outbreaks on record of introduced plant disease.

In the winter of 2004, the fruit bowl of Emerald, 900km northwest of Brisbane, was turned to scorched earth to halt the spread of citrus canker from a foreign-owned orchard. Years of backbreaking work went up in smoke as nearly 500,000 orange, lemon and mandarin trees were bulldozed into heaps and set ablaze. There was doubt whether the local industry would recover.

Not only is it back, potentially stronger than ever, but the replanting of higher-yield and better-tended trees has given rise to a bittersweet irony: the Australian fruit market could be swamped by bumper citrus crops from Emerald from next season.

The Weekend Australian understands that negotiations are under way between the Queensland government, other states, industry groups and Austrade to deal with the anticipated glut.

Unless new markets can be drummed up overseas, the flood of fruit could destablise prices at home for growers, industry insiders fear. "It is one of those strange things where you could become a victim of your own success," one says.

Peak industry group Citrus Australia says citrus growers have come through a tough decade of drought in the production centres of the Riverina in southwest NSW, Sunraysia in western Victoria and the Riverland in South Australia, compounded by the citrus canker outbreak in Emerald. Overall, production slipped as farmers shifted away from valencia oranges for juicing to easy-to-peel navel oranges and mandarins for eating.

Citrus, however, remains the largest fresh fruit export industry, with overseas sales valued at $109 million last year, about half going to the US.

The catch is that Queensland citrus, accounting for about a fifth of national production, is banned from that market because of US quarantine regulations. Long-running efforts to persuade the Americans that diseases such as black spot, a fungal blight, as well as citrus canker are under control in Queensland have been stepped up as production in the Emerald district swings back.

Citrus Australia chief executive Judith Damiani said Emerald growers had been allowed to replant since 2007, ahead of the declaration last year that the area was citrus canker-free.

"The export access area is something we do need assistance with," Ms Damiani said.

Alex Livingstone, of producers organisation Growcom, said citrus fruit had an export advantage because it kept longer than others such as strawberries.