Australian avocados could be next to benefit from improving China ties, growing demand for superfruit
- Australian advocacy group says negotiations are ongoing, with importers ‘really keen’ on avocados from Australia amid improving Beijing-Canberra ties
- China’s export and import volumes of avocados surged by 310.47 per cent to 65,600 tonnes between 2015 and 2023
Among familiar Australian products such as wine, lobsters, beef and dairy products, warming ties between Australia and China may bring another new choice to Chinese customers: avocados.
But the slow progress of negotiations on agreed phytosanitary protocols – a process that verifies agricultural products have been inspected and are pest and disease free – is delaying the availability of the superfruit to Chinese importers who “are really keen for the product”, said John Tyas, CEO of Avocados Australia.
“We have to hope that these negotiations that are currently happening can move quickly,” he added.
“And once we’re on the negotiation table, we can probably try and see if we can do more to push things along.”
China has strict sanitary and phytosanitary standards for fresh produce, often leading to long delays in negotiations over agricultural export deals.
We need to demonstrate to our government that avocados are worth investing in
According to Avocados Australia, the advocacy group for the Australian avocado industry, Canberra is also trying to negotiate access for apples and blueberries into the Chinese market, while Beijing is trying to get its jujube, or red dates, and kiwi fruits into the Australian market.
