RESULTADOS Y DISCUSIÓN
RESULTADOS DE LA APLICACIÓN DEL CUESTIONARIO DE CONTROL INTERNO
Strawberries in Australia are grown in most States except the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). Figure 5-3 shows the areas of strawberry plantations in Australia. Victoria produced 12,431 tonnes of strawberry in 2012 - 40% of the total production of strawberries. Queensland produced 11,110 tonnes or 36% of the total strawberry production (ABS). Other states grew less than 10 percent which were mainly consumed by the consumers in those States. However, there are times when strawberries are transported from those states to fulfil the customers’ expectations in other States. Table 5-9 provides the production volume and relevant percentage for each State in 2012.
Table 5-9 Strawberries production volume in Australia, Source: (ABS 2011)
State Production (tones) Percentage NSW 213 0.69% Vic. 12,431 40.23% Qld 11,110 35.96% SA 2,652 8.58% WA 4,074 13.19% Tas. 417 1.35% NT 0 0.00% ACT 0 0.00% Total 30,897 100%
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Figure 5-3 Map of farm lands: Strawberry
Due to climate diversity in Australia strawberries are available all year around. The strawberry season usually starts from October and last till May/June in Victoria, and then Queensland season starts from June and lasts to October. This enables the industry to supply strawberries 12 months a year. However, this is not always considered an advantage for the market. Weather events change the availability season by weeks and sometimes months. It may also result in oversupplying in the market for a limited time which means the fruit from Queensland arrives when Victorian strawberries are in the market impacting market price and revenues for growers.
During the Victorian season, Victoria takes the lead in supplying strawberry for the eastern states. As a consequence, the market dynamics of Victoria set the primary prices for all of the eastern states. There are over 80 strawberry growers in Victoria combining small, medium and large growers. Small growers often enter the market for a short period of time.
Chapter Five
However, large growers are able to supply over a longer period of time. During the Queensland season the supply focus shifts and prices are set from Queensland. From the consumers’ perspective, strawberry is available during winter in Victoria; however in terms of pricing it is much higher than in summer.
Table 5-10 Availablity time of strawberries in each State
State Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Vic Qld WA SA Tas NSW 5.3.4 Peaches
Note that the industry sources do not specifically record and report the data relevant to peaches. The peach is categorised as stone fruit and due to the similarities in attributes and features in stone fruits, the data are reported at aggregate level. Therefore in this section, some information includes other stone fruits such as nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries. However, the primary data analysis which will be described in Chapter 6 only includes peaches.
The location of peach and nectarine growing areas in Australia are shown in Figure 5-4. Victoria and NSW have the highest density of plantation area. With regard to production volume, Victoria produces almost 82% of the total peaches in Australia. The total Victorian production volume in 2012 was 49,470 tonnes followed by 5,187 tonnes in NSW (ABS). Table 5-11 shows the total production and percentages of peaches in all States.
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Figure 5-4 Map of growing region: Peach
Table 5-11 Peaches production volume in Australia, Source: (ABS 2011)
State Production (tones) Percentage NSW 5,187 8.57% Vic. 49,470 81.75% Qld 1,744 2.88% SA 2,088 3.45% WA 1,890 3.12% Tas. 135 0.22% NT 0 0.00% ACT 0 0.00% Total 60,514 100%
Chapter Five
The peach industry supplies two different markets - processing peach and fresh peach. These two types are completely different varieties. The processing peach is used in the canning industry. It is grown mainly by negotiations between the processing factories and the growers. The fresh peach varieties are not suitable for canning purposes. However, the processing varieties can be sold and consumed in the fresh fruit market. This changes the market dynamics and influences the price setting in the wholesale market. Growers prefer not to take the canning varieties to the fresh market. However, they have been forced to do so due to the oversupply in the canning industry. The production volumes of fresh peach and processing in Australia are shown in Table 5-12 and Table 5-13 respectively. Note that this thesis is concerned with the supply chain of fresh peaches.
Table 5-12 Fresh peach production volume, Source: (ABS 2011)
State Production (tones) Percentage NSW 4,294 16.57% Vic. 16,758 64.68% Qld 1,683 6.50% SA 1,404 5.42% WA 1,637 6.32% Tas. 135 0.52% NT 0 0.00% ACT 0 0.00% Total 25,911 100%
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Table 5-13 Cannery peach production volume, Source: (ABS 2011)
State Production (tones) Percentage NSW 893 2.58% Vic. 32,712 94.54% Qld 61 0.18% SA 684 1.98% WA 253 0.73% Tas. 0 0.00% NT 0 0.00% ACT 0 0.00% Total 34,603 100%
Peaches in Victoria are grown in the Goulburn region shown in Figure 5-5. This area is in north Victoria more than 200Km far from Melbourne and the wholesale market.
Figure 5-5 Location of Goulburn valley, Victoria
There are two main varieties in peaches - white peach and yellow peach. In addition, each has different varieties which enables the industry to supply peaches over a longer period of the year. Harvest times of peaches are similar in different states. The availability of peaches in season is shown in Table 5-14. Peach is a summer fruit which is in the market from November to April in Australia. The growers grow different varieties to secure their business and supply for longer periods in the year. In addition, supplying longer periods helps maintain farmers’ cash flow. Different varieties mature and are ready to harvest in different weeks of the season which enable them to harvest on time and split their work load.
Chapter Five
Table 5-14 Availability time of peaches in season
Peach Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
White Yellow
5.4 Chapter summary
This chapter articulated the selection of case studies for the research. Multi Attributes Decision Making was applied to select the appropriate Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for case study analysis. The case studies were selected according to these attributes: seasonality, volume of waste, price fluctuations, demand uncertainty, sale volume, short life time, and high price. Thirteen alternatives were considered and industry experts were asked to weight each alternative according to different attributes. Store and category managers of supermarkets, and local FFVs shop owners participated in the scoring process.
The collected data were analysed applying Weighted Sum Model to rank the alternatives, and four products with the highest score were selected to be studied in this research - peaches, table grapes, mangoes, and strawberries. As the supply chain of these four produce will be investigated in this research, their geographical elements, production volumes and market structure as background knowledge of case studies were described.
The following chapter looks at the supermarket chains of the case studies and describes the supply chain structures and relationships between players.