As China gets richer, its appetite for premium apples gets bigger, pushing up prices for the fruit, according to Australian Broadcasting Co.’s website abc.net.au.

Exhibitors at the Asia Fruit Logistica conference earlier this month reported problems finding export-grade apples at the right price in China for European markets.

Tasmanian fruit grower Tim Reid said that the price of production in China could rise to levels similar to those in Australia, the website said. China could be a net importer in the future, he told the website.

"I think we'll find, ultimately, with China, it may be some years off, that it will become a net importer of product,” he is quoted as saying.

Tasmanian fruit generated interest at a different expo in China, abc.net.au reported.

The Chinese International Small to Medium Enterprise Fair in Guangzhou, which Australia co-hosted, came soon after apple markets between the two nations opened, sparking interest in the Tasmanian product.

And interest wasn’t limited to apples, an industry group official told the website.

"We had a lot of enquiries for organic fruit, we had enquries for fruit juice, we had enquiries for dried fruit and also we had quite a few enquiries for processed waste fruit products, so pulp, the volatiles and essences and things like that, which are used a lot in bakery products over there,” Lucy Gregg, of Fruit Growers Tasmania, is quoted as saying.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com