Poor weather and a labour shortage has left Griffith without a full crop

A release from Citrus Australia says that farmers around the country have been reporting especially perfect mandarins, lemons and oranges, among others.

Robert Hoddle has been growing citrus for just upwards of a decade, and says the recent milder summer went a long way in creating the current crop.

"We've had good rain and milder conditions this year, we haven't had the extreme heat that we've had over the previous three years," he said.

"I think the mild summer has really helped the quality of the fruit. It's very tasty and the size is bigger, the skin is smoother and it's probably the best crop we've grown."

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Vito Mancini, the president of Griffith Citrus Growers wasn't as confident. He said that while the fruit was definitely of high quality, Griffith hadn't quite had the bumper year that other regions benefited from.

""The way the season shaped up, it would have been one of those once a decade events where fruit quality, size and yield were all up," he explained.

"Our area has suffered a bit more with the labour shortage, and a bit more rain during the harvest than the other regions, but all in all, the fruit quality has been fantastic," he said.

Mr Mancini added that two rounds of hail had damaged a lot of otherwise perfect fruit, and that a lack of fruit pickers this year had meant there simply wasn't the labour available to harvest the crops.

"Lastly, there's the hesitation to supply markets like China during these trade issues. It's made a lot of people hesitant ... It's not all doom and gloom though, it could have been a lot worse. We're very thankful we're still moving a lot of fruit."

"This year is modest compared to what it could have been."

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