According to a preliminary forecast by Riverina Citrus, the region is expecting 56,000 tonnes of navel oranges, a 14 per cent increase from last season and a five per cent increase on the five year average.
Riverina Citrus chief executive officer Peter Morrish said he hoped the high quality crop would be met with high prices.
“We’ve had two relatively low seasons due to climatic effects,” Mr Morrish said. “Now we’re back on the track for a good season.”
“While our region's (the Riverina) crop (forecast) is up, the overall navel crop in the Murray Basin is well down and we’re hoping that will boost prices.”
Mr Morrish said rainfall in December and January, minimum hail damage and sufficient water allocations contributed to the positive outlook.
However, citrus grower Lewis Sartor from Hanwood, 5 km outside of Griffith, said despite the positive forecast citrus farmers were still facing tough conditions and some had even decided to sell their water elsewhere.
“There are already growers who are moving out of growing anything and are selling their water elsewhere – to managed investment schemes or other growers,” Mr Sartor said. “I think you’re going to see a bigger move after this year due to the strength of the Australian dollar, high input costs and the lack of processors meeting the means of production. There is a large gap between production costs and returns.”
The high Australian dollar has been hurting fruit exports this season with Australia's largest citrus exporter to the United States, Riversun, recently announcing it will ship 25 per cent less fruit compared to last year.
Growers will begin to harvest their navel oranges in the next few weeks.