First Aussie seafreight apples to China 'couldn't have gone better' - FreshFruitPortal.com

First Aussie seafreight apples to China 'couldn't have gone better'

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First Aussie seafreight apples to China 'couldn't have gone better'

The Australian apple grower who sent the first ever shipment from the country bound for mainland China has said he is delighted with how everything went, and is planning to send more next season in higher quantities. TIGER-FUJI

Southern Tasmanian grower Scott Brothers shipped 1,470 cartons of its newly developed variety Tiger Fuji earlier in June, using Hansen Orchard's marketing arm Apple Isle Tasmania as the exporter.

Scott Brothers managing director Andrew Scott told www.freshfruitportal.com the whole process in both countries went exactly as he had hoped.

"It was a big success. It couldn't have gone better basically," Scott said.

Once the apples arrived in China they were distributed to retails shops and online retailers.

Scott said he was not planning for any more shipments to the Asian country this season but was expecting to send more regular consignments from next year.

"We have sent more to Hong Kong this season but into China itself now we're planning for next year, now we know what the customer's after and all those sorts of things," he said.

"We're going to try to broaden it next year."

At the moment Scott is working with one single Chinese importer as he wanted to ensure everything went to plan.

"Certainly we will look at capacity building, and all those sorts of things will be the questions we ask over the next few months.

"We will look at potential volumes, assess the market demands, and work out how we're going to get there."

Although the Scott Brothers' Tiger Fuji apple is sold domestically in southern and eastern parts of Australia, it was always developed with export in mind.

"It was designed to travel well, to have good shelf life, to have good appearance, and have all the attributes that an export apple from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere has to have," Scott said.

He added that it had been in development for around 20 years, but he had only recently began a big push for it into export markets because for the last few years the Australian dollar was unattractively strong for foreign importers.

"But now the Australian dollar is starting to fall, which is making us more competitive and we feel we have a product here in Tasmania we can offer," Scott said.

Related story: First Aussie seafrieght apples about to hit mainland China

Photo: Scott Brothers Facebook page

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