Was at the local greengrocer yesterday and much to my surprise, there were export quality big reddish Queen apples on sale at $1.99 kg.
Not sure of the implications for when Scales reports on 28 August but Queen was a superstar variety for exports to China in recent years. Last year, I recall Queen retailing for over $4 kg and they were not export quality.
Cherry farmers were hit very hard this year by huge volumes of cherries from Chile and Tasmania. The Chinese have invested hugely in those countries (no big OIA issue unlike NZ) and the orchards have started producing big volumes.
A number of China importers pulled out of the NZ cherry market this year after sustaining losses when they were caught with a glut of cherries.
Otago etc have apricots the size of peaches and cherries and apricots have different seasons to chile, turkey etc. its timing for the Xmas , new year mkt where the money is.
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