Author: Kira Brown
Media Source: Financial Review – Cherries and stonefruit in demand by Asia but access and quarantine issues plague the industry
By: Emily Parkinson, Financial Review Mar 23, 2016Â
Despite the promise of FTAs there can be hold-ups in getting some produce into markers.
Free Trade Agreements may have opened up lucrative export markets in Asia for producers of premium Australian produce but, for some, the rewards will have to wait.
Australian cherry and stonefruit exporters are enjoying red-hot demand in markets like China and Korea but lengthy quarantine and access issues have taken some of the shine off the upside of recent FTA’s.
Montague Fresh, one of the country’s top three apple and stonefruit producers, is keen to start shipping peaches, plums and nectarines into its biggest market, China, but is still waiting on quarantine clearance:
Media Source: Central Western Daily – Orange cherry company makes top three of NSW Farmer of the Year Awards
COMPARING apples with oranges looks relatively easy against weighing up the merits of the three NSW Farmer of the Year finalists for 2015.
When the judges toured the enterprises last week, they saw production systems for oysters, asparagus, cherries, spinach, beetroot and apples.
This year’s Farmer of the Year finalists, announced on Thursday by NSW Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair, and NSW Farmers president Derek Schoen, highlight entrepreneurial approaches to farming outside the mainstream broadacre cropping and livestock sectors.