Australia lets in Chinese apple imports

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OPINION: News keeps on getting worse for the Australian apple industry. Just as a World Trade Organisation report rejecting its ban on New Zealand imports is about to be revealed, it is hit by an even bigger blow - apple imports from China.

If the Aussie growers had not conducted such a nasty anti-Kiwi campaign over the years - including burning our prime minister in effigy - you would have to feel sorry for them.

Recent attempts by a magnanimous New Zealand Government to offer a negotiated settlement of the dispute which has stymied apple exports to the west island for the past 89 years have fallen on deaf ears.

Now New Zealand is left with preparing its arguments for the Australian WTO appeal that is bound to come. This is despite no appeal being successful in the history of the WTO.

As we know, courtesy of a leak three months ago, the WTO has found in New Zealand's favour, agreeing with the science presented by our experts that the Australian apple industry is in no danger from fireblight.

The WTO report is due for public release in mid-August, a couple of weeks before election day in Australia.

It will add fuel to a row over China's apple access which is threatening to become an issue in marginal rural seats.

Biosecurity Australia, the organisation that was restructured a few years back to immunise it from political pressure, made the decision to allow China's apples in, saying its fruit fly pest was not a threat.

Responding to angry apple growers, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the decision was science- based and he could not interfere.

The decision revealed a strong xenophobic streak in the so-called lucky country.

The internet crackled with warnings of imminent doom - wholesale job losses, orchards laid waste and communities left derelict.

It is a legacy of a populist political stance that has long portrayed Asia as a threat rather than an opportunity.

Many of the more sensible comments would have resounded with our own horticulture industries. Calls to buy local are echoed here.

But as our export lamb industry can testify, it is also a valid argument to say that out-of-season produce ensures shoppers don't lose the buying habit while domestic goods are off the shelves.

The buy-local plea will fall into the same trap exposed by a New Zealand survey of supermarket shoppers in Britain. There, they buy on price, and it will be the same story in Australia and New Zealand. If the Chinese apples are cheaper, people will buy them, as they have Chinese pears since 1999.

Another of the Aussie apple industry's arguments, that it provides enough apples to supply what the market wants, does not hold water. Australia's apple consumption is only 6kg-9kg of apples per head a year.

A campaign by the local industry and importers could see that rise closer to New Zealand's 15kg-16kg and all would benefit.

The comparison between the Chinese and New Zealand cases is obvious. Both countries have biosecurity concerns - we have fireblight, China has a fruit fly. So why do the Chinese get the nod and not us?

It's hard to say for sure from this distance, but the Aussie media are linking the decision firmly to trade. That has a ring of truth, especially as Biosecurity Australia's claims of a science-based decision don't stack up alongside its handling of New Zealand's own science arguments, lately endorsed by the WTO. Australia is looking at China, as are we, as a market for its big-ticket farming produce - beef especially. There's talk of a "four-for-four deal" - that China and Australia each wants to advance four commodities into the other's country.

China's application to send apples to Australia was due to be signed off on the same day as an application by Australia to send table grapes to China, but was delayed until next month.

Interestingly, the China apple announcement was preceded by a gleeful Tasmanian apple group's declaration that it had won valuable access to China. That quickly changed as the news from Biosecurity Australia emerged. In a short time, the Tasmanians were the ones leading the anti-Chinese rhetoric.

All this leaves the question: will we see Chinese apples here? Very unlikely, I'm told. China is interested in exporting pears here, but would find the apple industry a tough nut to crack. We have many appealing varieties that the Chinese can't compete with.

But Australia is another story. It has been slow to develop the sweet and crunchy apples we take for granted, preferring to stay with the established varieties granny smith and red and golden delicious.

- © Fairfax NZ News