Australian Stonefruit Grower Magazine Issue 2 August 2016 | Page 24

Feature
Californian Stonefruit
is exported to Australia
by airfreight. This is
expensive, adding around
$4/kg to the price
of fruit.

will cost many Australian importers
more per inspection,” Mr Baker said.
“Clearance will increasingly have
to occur on arrival, which is riskier for
importers.
“If the product doesn’t pass,
then it will have to be re-fumigated
or re-exported, both of which will
significantly reduce fruit quality.
There aren’t enough facilities in Australia

to cope with the volume of USA imports, or enough
people authorised to do the inspections. This means delays
in the supply chain, which is bad for business”.
It is planned that the pre-clearance system will be
replaced using “authorised officers”, Australian citizens
trained by AQIS and employed direc tly by importers to
conduct the inspections.

The tyranny of distance
Fruit testing laboratory at Mountain View Fruit,
Reedley CA. Photo: Mountain View Fruit

Stonefruit is exported from the USA to Australia by
airfreight. This is expensive, adding around $4/kg to the
price of fruit.
Using sea-freight in refrigerated containers would

shape by the time they reached retail shelves. However,

at least halve this cost. However, shipping times are at

considerable effort has now been put into selecting

least three weeks, which makes this difficult to achieve. A

varieties for Australia that eat well, but also cope with the

number of importers have trialled sea-freight, with mixed

quarantine treatment and extended storage time required.

results.

Productivity through pre-clearance

Largely because of concern about SWD, the Californian
stonefruit industry decided to reduce the risks of rejection
or delays by instigating a pre-clearance program. Australian

Bins of fruit being
hydro-cooled
on arrival at the
packing shed.
Photo: J. Ekman

quarantine officials were contracted to provide this service.
As the product is inspected before it leaves the USA, fruit
not meeting Australian biosecurity standards can be
diverted into other markets rather than rejected on arrival.
This program will cease by 2020, and in the meantime
is being scaled back due to lack of available inspectors.
According to Produce Marketing Australia’s Mark Baker,
the loss of the pre-clearance program is the issue of most
concern to the Californian industry. “Although inspectors
are still there, they are already thinner on the ground and
24

Australian Stonefruit Grower | august 2016

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