Vegetable representative body AUSVEG revealed that Australian fresh bean exports have hit high record since 2011.
Australian Food News reported that Australia's fresh bean exports are valued at over 40 times the size of its frozen bean export market. "The export market for Australian fresh beans has experienced an upward trend over the past four years, with an overall increase in value of 52.4 percent since 2011-12," AUSVEG CEO Richard Mulcahy said.
"Over the 2014-15 financial year, Australia's export market for fresh beans has been valued at over $5.4 million dollars. This is the highest recorded value to date and has come about at a time when Australia's vegetable export markets are showing considerable strength," he added on.
New Zealand is Australia's biggest export market for fresh beans. As a matter of fact, it holds a 98.4 percent share of total fresh bean exports between 2014 to 2015.
"Overall, Australia's vegetable export market has also grown dramatically over the past three years. Global Trade Atlas figures show that it is worth over $125 million during the period January to August, 2015," Richard said in a statement. "This is an increase of over 10.2 percent in comparison to the same time last year when vegetable exports were estimated at just $114 million dollars."
He added that vegetable export growth in this year has been supported through increased exports to Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, each of these nations has seen an increase in export demand of 23 percent, 32 percent and 41 percent respectively compared to the same time in year 2014.
"Exports can help our local vegetable growers to diversify away from some of the domestic risk presented in today's economy," Richard added on. "It can also provide additional sources of revenue for growers at a time when they have been facing increased pressures from higher production costs."
