A COLD storage facility at the Edinburgh Parks industrial estate near Adelaide is set to provide South Australian citrus and table grape producers with easier access to international markets.
Flinders Port Holdings (FPH) has been working with Lineage, an international cold storage organisation, to provide a plant registered with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for fruit export and cold treatment which can store fresh produce for overseas destinations.
South Australia has previously had no DAFF-accredited cold storage facility to handle fruit and vegetables from the state’s produce-growing regions, limiting the export opportunities from regions such as the Riverland.
About 90% of South Australia’s citrus and table grape crops are exported via sea freight, with the majority currently shipped from Victoria.
Lineage has been DAFF-accredited, meaning it can satisfy all export and cold storage protocols.
Without this approved facility, Riverland producers have had to move their produce to Mildura and other Victorian-based DAFF-approved cold storage facilities before being transported to Melbourne for export.
FPH group business development manager Richard Brine said producers were constantly looking for ways to streamline and reduce supply chain costs while obtaining a fair price for their produce.
“We have exporters based in the Riverland such as Waikerie, which is two hours from Port Adelaide, who transport their produce to cold storage locations in Victoria and then move it to the Port of Melbourne via road and rail,” Mr Brine said.
“Exporters are interested in using South Australia’s ports, should a cold store be available. They will now be able to transport to Edinburgh in two to three hours from the Riverland, hold it in cold storage, and then ship it out from Port Adelaide, saving them transport costs and time to market.
“Transporting produce to Adelaide is more cost effective than moving it to Mildura and putting it on a train to Melbourne. When you’re competing with international exporters in global markets, every cost saving counts.”
Mr Brine said FPH had spent the past year working on a solution for South Australia’s citrus and table grape exporters.
Lineage recently gained approvals from DAFF to be a plant-registered establishment for fruit export and cold treatment for Riverland fruit to all export protocol destinations such as China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, USA and other Southeast Asian countries.
“Our conservative analysis, based on our research and our discussions with many growers, is that this option could save at least 20 per cent on transport costs,” Mr Brine said.
“Farmers are saying if they could save $1 per carton, that’s important to them with further benefits in terms of cost and time savings and competing in the global market.
“We’re hoping Riverland growers will see the initial benefits, and then we hope to later extend that to the Sunraysia region.”