Pinnacle Fresh – Small still beautiful for Aussie citrus exporter

Australian citrus exporter Pinnacle Fresh is preparing for the new citrus season with expectations of strong eating quality despite smaller fruit sizing following a dry growing period.

Daniel Newport says the harvest is only just beginning in the Sunraysia, Riverina and Riverland regions, where the company handles a broad range of citrus varieties including navels, Cara Cara oranges, blood oranges and mandarins.

“By the end of this week, we’ll have quite a few sheds packing for us, which will be good,” Newport says.

The main challenge this season has been fruit size, with most varieties coming in smaller than last year’s crop. “Sizing’s definitely smaller than last year. It’s on average one count size smaller than last year,” he says. “Some varieties and some regions are even smaller than that, but probably across the board it’s one count size smaller than last year.”

According to Newport, a lack of rainfall through summer and early autumn played a major role. “There was little rain through summer and early autumn, which the fruit trees needed, so the sizing just didn’t quite get there,” he says.

Wind during the growing period also created more skin blemishes on some fruit, although Newport stresses this has not affected eating quality.

“The fruit’s still expected to eat really nicely this year, but there will be some more superficial marks to the outside of the fruit,” he says. “This means there is likely to be more class two fruit this season. It doesn’t mean that our class one premium grade will look any different. It will look just as premium. There’ll just be less of it.”

While smaller sizing can impact returns in some export markets, Newport remains optimistic about the season overall and says global demand for citrus remains solid.

“The demand to start the season is decent. People are always going to eat citrus; the challenge is increasing the demand to keep up with supply,” he says.

Export remains a major focus for the business, particularly to the United States, which accounts for the majority of Pinnacle Fresh’s overseas shipments. “We have a large portion of the market share of Aussie citrus in the U.S. We’ve been able to promote it under our Dracula Citrus brand, which we started because our fruit is in peak season for October in the States. It’s been very successful there. Eighty percent of what we ship goes to the U.S.,” Newport says.

The company has spent years building infrastructure and sales capability in North America, including establishing Pinnacle Fresh USA. “We’ve put infrastructure in place in the U.S. to be successful, so that’s why 80% of our fruit goes there,” he says.

Although the U.S. is itself a major citrus producer, Australia benefits from supplying fruit during the northern hemisphere’s offseason. “It is very counterseasonal to us, so southern hemisphere versus northern hemisphere,” Newport says. “They can’t produce navel oranges and sweet mandarins at that time of year.”

Australia competes against larger exporters, including South Africa and countries in South America, but Newport says Australian fruit continues to find a premium niche.

“We’re more expensive, but we’re a bit more unique, and our flavour profile’s consistently better than the competition in those other areas,” he says. “So we just find a place in the market where there are supermarkets or consumers that are willing to pay a little bit more for flavour and uniqueness and Aussie fruit.”

Pinnacle Fresh is also expanding its presence across Asian markets, with exports into China, Taiwan, and Vietnam gradually increasing. “Each year we’re doing a little bit more in Asia,” Newport says. “Now that we’ve established ourselves really well in North America, the next step is to do it elsewhere, which is Asia.”

For more information:
Daniel Newport
Pinnacle Fresh
Tel: +61 488 023 679
daniel@pinnaclefresh.com.au
https://pinnaclefresh.com.auPublication date: Wed 20 May 2026

© FreshPlaza.com / David Rule