What was it all about?

This investment was tasked with developing individual export strategies for a range of tropical commodities including persimmon, passionfruit, lychee, papaya and banana, feeding into an overarching export strategy for Australian tropical fruit.

The new Persimmon Industry Export Market Development Strategy was released during May 2018, with its overview of trade opportunities and considerations available from Hort Innovation here in a brief market mapping report.

Some quick takeaways:

• Based on the project’s market analysis, Australia could potentially export 450 tonnes, or around 17 per cent of current total persimmon production, by 2023 – an increase of 307 tonnes.
  
  
• Persimmons have cultural status in the north Asian markets of China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan as an icon of the autumn festival, reflected in loyalty to domestically produced product and seasonal consumption. By comparison, demand in the counter-season market when Australia can supply is much more limited.
  
  
• The best prospects for Australian persimmon exports appear to be in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The market mapping report identifies the prime prospect markets as Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Thailand.

Following the strategy findings, the next steps involved Hort Innovation working with industry to determine the appetite for levy investment in the export space and to subsequently roll out any trade-related R&D activities.