By Aaron Cordy
APPLE growers in the region are celebrating the approval of mainland Australian apples being allowed to be sold to China after years of negotiation between the two countries came to a positive conclusion last month.
Shipments of Australia, and hopefully Greater Shepparton’s apples are expected to begin in 2026 after a new biosecurity protocol was agreed upon. Tasmanian apples have long been shipped to China, but fears of fruit fly has meant a block on the local growers taking advantage of the potentially lucrative market.
“It’s a massive opportunity. It’s not gonna be instant, but I think in a couple of years we can start to build an export market there. It’s gonna make a massive difference,” said Chairman of the Board at Fruit Growers Victoria Limited, Victorian Director for Apple and Pear Australia and orchardist Mitch McNab.
“We’re so heavily relying on the domestic market that is over-supplied with product. Low prices and our costs are going through the roof, there is no way can recover costs.
“There’s 1.3 billion people there. That’s six, seven times the size of Australia’s population and here we are supplying the domestic market, if we could get our product there, it’ll change our industry substantially.”
The new deal for Australia was eased through in the tariff war between China and the USA.
While the USA will likely still export apples to China. The opportunities for Australian growers to capitalise on the “peace fruit” for China’s wealthier population are endless. It is a market where gift-giving a single apple wrapped in a box can be sold for up to $90 USD.
“We need to look at markets where we can try and target China’s top one per cent. The most affluent in the country will pay big money for clean fruit that has a high food safety standard.
“We’ve got, I think as growers, to change our mentality. We need to look at if we can grow our fruit to try and target some of these gift-giving mechanisms. Chinese New Year, they use fruit as a gift, so if we could target things around that, it’ll make a massive difference.”
