Export Plan

1.0 Introduction

Mildura Fruit Company (MFC) is one of Australia's leading citrus packers and exporters, marketing a full range of citrus fruits around the world and is strongly supported by committed producers of quality citrus and a well established, worldwide customer base. MFC is located in central Mildura, in one of Australia's premium fruit growing areas; the Sunraysia district and is 550 kilometres North West of Melbourne on the New South Wales - Victorian border. MFC’s sources quality citrus from approximately 150 citrus growers along the Murray and Darling Rivers in South Eastern Australia. MFC packs out of a single, very large packing-house and employs 40 permanent staff and 150 casual staff to meet seasonal and shift requirements. This large grower base, producing a broad range of varieties, allows MFC to extend supply of fresh citrus to meet their customers’ requirements.

2.0 Export Readiness Analysis

MFC is one of the Australia's most technologically advanced citrus packers, making extensive use of bar code scanning and computerised fruit sizing and sorting equipment. MFC is continually upgrading equipment to cope with a steady growth in packing and marketing demand (Mildura Fruits Company, 2013). MFC's operation consists of 2 large capacity packing lines that enable the full range of citrus products to be sorted and packed with little interruption throughout the busy navel season. The great depth of MFC’s citrus supply ensures large volumes of quality citrus are sourced from an extensive harvest area. MFC is well supported by an established, worldwide customer base and in 2009 greater than 85 per cent of MFC's carton production was shipped to overseas destinations. MFC also has significant market share in Australian wholesale markets and supermarkets(Mildura Fruits Company, 2013).

According to Andrew Harty (2012), Australia has advantages over its competitors in citrus market due to its advances in food safety. The industry has a very good...