300 tonnes of oranges were thrown away in Australia

Farmers in Australia have seen a terrible waste of produce, with trucks full of healthy oranges being dumped across the country. About 1,500 tractor-trailers of full-looking oranges have been dumped at sites across the country, while orange orchards full of ripe fruit have been smashed to pieces.

For Griffith citrus grower Vito Mancini, this season has been his worst in 40 years. Due to wet conditions, most of his oranges do not meet supermarket specifications and he has thrown away 300 tons of his harvest so far. Mr Manseri, from Griffith in NSW’s Riverina, said farmers were ‘heartbroken and at the mercy of supermarkets and consumers demanding beautiful fruit’.

Vito Mancini threw away hundreds of tons of product.
(Photo: Vito Mancini)

Rising supermarket food prices and interest rates are weighing on consumers, and demand has slowed, but the main problems are the cost of picking up and ongoing ocean freight difficulties. For growers like Mancini, it’s more profitable to throw away the fruit than to pay people to pick it.

Export issues
Quality issues alone do not affect exports. There are still problems with ocean freight transport due to shortage of containers and delays in shipping around the world.

Citrus Australia’s Nathan Hancock said demand was strong in Asian markets, but growers were having major problems getting fruit on ships as ships passed through Australian ports during the pandemic.

Source: abc.net.au