eve
Sep 25th, 2005, 08:02 AM
It is appalling that the Australian citrus industry says a failure to secure new export markets has resulted in the dumping of oranges on an unprecedented scale in north-western Victoria. Apparently growers stopped juicing summer crops of valencia oranges and planted winter crops of navel oranges in order to pursue new markets in North Asia, North America and Europe, now the navel orange trees are full of fruit that nobody wants.
"Currently our estimate is that there are about 25,000 tonnes that's been dumped for stock food," he said. "That's been laid out in the dry land farming areas around Mildura. Businessman Dick Smith, who has flown over tonnes of oranges that have been discarded near the Murray River, says the scale of the dumping is disturbing. "These are good oranges," Mr Smith said. "They might not have perfect skins [and can't] be sold in supermarkets but it's unacceptable the tremendous amount of energy that's gone into growing them, the water usage that's gone into growing them, the chemical used, and then to just dump them out in the fields."
I wonder how widespread this sort of thing happens in other countries?
"Currently our estimate is that there are about 25,000 tonnes that's been dumped for stock food," he said. "That's been laid out in the dry land farming areas around Mildura. Businessman Dick Smith, who has flown over tonnes of oranges that have been discarded near the Murray River, says the scale of the dumping is disturbing. "These are good oranges," Mr Smith said. "They might not have perfect skins [and can't] be sold in supermarkets but it's unacceptable the tremendous amount of energy that's gone into growing them, the water usage that's gone into growing them, the chemical used, and then to just dump them out in the fields."
I wonder how widespread this sort of thing happens in other countries?