THE STATE I'M IN

Cherry growers must improve or miss out on export market

13/08/2008
That's the message brought by American cherry field officer John Morton, from Oregon, who's visiting growers across Australia this month...

"The quality bar has been raised. We've seen this in America and Europe through the last number of years and Australia's just on the verge of having to do the same thing," he said.

"They've got to grow bigger, better fruit for the market." ...

"We've been through this in America. We're just five years ahead, that's all. We can't sell poor quality fruit in the market any more."
Will they also miss out on the local market, thanks to the Chile free trade agreement?

Chile free trade agreement angers cherry growers
09/08/2007
As their biggest competitor, growers say Chile will squeeze them further out of the international market...

"Chile [is] our biggest competitor within our own time zone," he said.

"Their fruit ripens when ours does, it has huge American dollars behind it.

"We can't work out the driver behind it."

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