Dive Brief:
- Riversun Exports, a citrus grower-shipper cooperative in Australia, will close its doors.
- Members of the co-op, which was created specifically to sell citrus to United States importers, voted over the weekend to disband amid increasing competition from Chilean importers.
- Growers in the co-op are now expected to turn their attention to sales in Asia.
Dive Insight:
Riversun's story has been an interesting one to watch. Back in 1991, a collection of 16 Australian companies involved in growing, packing, and shipping citrus saw an opportunity born of crop cycles, trade laws, and currency rates.
The Australians noted that there was a three-month window in the U.S. in which domestic supplies of citrus were exhausted. The Aussies also noted that the exchange rate between the Australian and U.S. dollars favored exports to the states. And Riversun was born.
Eventually the exchange rate turned against the Australians (although it has swung back again recently). More importantly, competitors from Chile made tremendous inroads with U.S. buyers. By 2012, Chilean citrus exports to the U.S. reached 100,000 tons — triple what they had been three years earlier.
In an environment like that, it only makes sense for the folks at Riversun to close up and turn their attention to the East.