New Zealand apples are likely to be on the market in Australia by 2012, says Pipfruit New Zealand chief executive Peter Beaven.The apple industry finally won a long-standing battle to allow its fruit to be exported to Australia after the World Trade Organ
New Zealand apples are likely to be on the market in Australia by 2012, says Pipfruit New Zealand chief executive Peter Beaven.
The apple industry finally won a long-standing battle to allow its fruit to be exported to Australia after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled overnight that the use of non-tariff trade barriers to block those exports breached international trade laws.
The WTO rejected the long-standing claim by Australia that sending New Zealand fruit there risked the introduction of fire blight, European canker and apple leaf-curling midge.
It backed most New Zealand claims that prohibitive Australian quarantine measures breached WTO trade rules.
Mr Beaven said today he accepted there was a chance Australia could appeal the decision.
"But even if there is an appeal, my advice is that the appeal process would be completed by about Christmas," he told Radio New Zealand.
The second piece of the process was writing the standard operating procedure or technical work plan under which exporters gained access.
"But worst case scenario; we would have apples there by 2012."
While there were obvious concerns for Australian growers about losing local market share, Mr Beaven said New Zealand aimed to add to the mix there with varieties not grown in Australia and get more people eating the fruit.
"The opportunity is to grow the size of the market in Australia, because consumption per capita is less than half of New Zealand's."
Mr Beaven said initial estimates were that about 500,000 million cases of apples could go into Australia each year, yielding about $30 million, but it could also be significantly higher than that.
Trade Minister Tim Groser said the latest development had been 80 years in the making and was "hugely good news" for New Zealand in the long term.
"The panel has come to the same conclusion we did some years ago -- that Australia's objections to the importation of New Zealand apples are simply not backed by adequate scientific evidence."
He said he recognised Australia still had full appeal rights and would wait and see if that right would be taken up.
Mr Groser said Australia was leading into an intense election and would look forward to dealing with its trade minister, who ever that may be, once that election was over.
New Zealand's apple industry had not been in good shape for the past 10 years and the latest development would be helpful, he said.
Australian growers have said imports of New Zealand apples could cost the major apple areas in New South Wales $A30 million ($NZ39m) a year in lost sales, but since those estimates were made, the world's biggest apple-growing nation, China, had sought to also enter the market.
Biosecurity Australia said Chinese apples could be imported as long as risks from 18 pests of concern were a "very low level".
