Quality Issues and Competing Products Slows Movement of Australian Navels in the Japanese Market

Japanese importers of Australian navels are facing a slower movement in the market. One reason is a quality issue like decays and deteriorations of the fruit, particularly with the Washington variety, presumably due to lower vitality coming from its late harvest and/or a too-long storage period. Another reason is the rapid and widening penetration of local mandarins into the market, to which the majority of citrus demand is shifting. Under those circumstances, along with further arrivals still expected from Australia, it is difficult to predict its bottom-of-market price or the period of movement improvement.