Australian company BGP International have supply partners around the worlds, including unique supply arrangements in Australia. The company supply a variety of fruit, but specialises in citrus and grapes.
Grapes
The Australian grape season started out full of promise, with good volumes to be moved, but combined with some market resistance and weather events, values were adjusted somewhat to keep fruit moving. "We have growers in Mildura and from our own perspective have had a reasonably good run with export sales, while prices have needed to be adjusted to keep fruit moving and manage some quality issues due mainly to heat weather events," comments Martin Cowie, CEO at the company.
"The domestic market saw good quantities at fair values on offer as an outlet to move quantity – again, weather events dictated less suitable fruit for export and more finding its way into the domestic market. Volumes available for export have now tailed off quite quickly.
© BGP International
Citrus
The very first Australian mandarins are already on the shelves, also some early oranges.
"In general, growing conditions have been favourable, but Queensland did suffer from a couple of weather events, including rain, flooding and of course the cyclone, although not as bad as predicted it did impact some citrus production. The result is that instead of having a great year, some areas will have a year similar to the last season."
For BGP International the Egyptian season is the big one for citrus and this season they have had a good run, according to Martin. "Although volumes have been down around 20-30% as there has been quite a lot of small fruit and there was a lot demand for big fruit.
"We are lucky to have good people on the ground, and our quality has been good. Overall, I would say the season will be good for us. The prices dropped towards the middle of the season but have picked up again as the season nears its end, and there has been increased demand for juice fruit more recently.
"The juicing market has been strong for quite some time. A few years ago, Egypt had little interest in juicing, but there has been a lot of investment recently, which has kept prices buoyant. Volumes are getting short now, and prices are very reasonable. We will keep on with our Egyptian citrus for a further 10-12 weeks, taking us well into our Australian production."
The US tariffs imposed last week won't affect BPG International. They ship product out of the US but don't send much there.
For more information:
Martin Cowie
BGP International
Tel: +61396863300
martin@bgp.com.au
www.bgp.com.au