Mareeba grower’s sweet deal
A record number of FNQ lychees have touched down in the USA, marking the success of the second commercial shipment by Mareeba grower Marcello Avolio.
A RECORD number of Far North Queensland lychees have touched down in the United States, marking the success of the second commercial shipment by Mareeba grower Marcello Avolio.
Mr Avolio was the first farmer in Australia to successfully export lychees to the US last season as part of a three-year pilot program run by the Australian Lychee Growers Association.
Now, after wrapping up his 2017 lychee season, Mr Avolio has smashed the record – sending over three times more boxes than the initial shipment of 242 cartons.
“We’ve already sent off the lychees to the US and they received it last Friday and have been distributing them to the shops,” he said.
“I just got the feedback and it was really good. I’m pretty over the moon, we sent 798 boxes – which was three times more than last year.
“The prices were also better this year compared to the domestic market.”
Mr Avolio said he had to meet strict biosecurity requirements for his export batch of lychees that prohibited the use of certain pesticides and fungicides which were banned in the US.
“It’s a bit nerve-racking because it goes through testing at Brisbane and has to meet strict biosecurity requirements,” he said.
“Then there’s the delay in freight and it’s like a weekand-a-half or two weeks travel time before they get there.”
Mr Avolio also sent fruit to Brisbane. From there it was distributed between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with about 90 per cent sent to Woolworths supermarkets in all three states.
He said while fruit quality remained at a high, prices were down in the domestic market this year.
“It wasn’t a bumper season,” he said. “It was more than last year’s but we’ve had more in the past. It was a good year in terms of volumes but I’m not really happy with the prices, I’m not sure what went wrong.
“We work on supply and demand so either there was an oversupply or under-demand, I’m not sure.”
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