Bundaberg region watermelons and strawberries touched down in the Netherlands recently for a trial shipment which could open the door for an Australian-first export market.
A Bundaberg delegation travelled with the produce in the hopes Queensland small crops could soon be sold in the country's supermarkets.
The group of farmers and Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers Chief Executive Officer Bree Watson visited supermarkets and met with importers and freight logistics providers.
While Australia has not been on the radar for importing crops like, melons, strawberries and blueberries, Ms Watson feels the time is right to break into Europe.
"Australia has never exported to the Netherlands before in terms of fresh produce for these particular commodities," she said.
"A lot of them have never really considered Australia as an import country, because it is a long way," she said.
"But there is a lot happening in the world and the time is right for some really great produce to go from Australia into Europe."
The trial shipment of Melita melons and strawberries allowed the delegates to test the import legislation, as well as explore the cultural differences in the European consumers.
The melons were chosen for their compact size, which makes freight more affordable and fits in with the lifestyle of the locals.
"Part of the trip was to test the import requirements and we had a very small trial shipment to test these protocols and we were really pleased to see we could get our produce in," Ms Watson said.
"It's not until you visit these countries and you go to the supermarket that you get an understanding of how consumers operate.
"Over there so many people ride their bikes and they go to the market every few days, they have smaller apartments and refrigerators, they can only carry what they can on their bikes, it's culturally very different so the Melita melons are actually perfect for that."
With the Wide Bay being counter seasonal to northern Europe, peak production is occurring here while production is low there.
The high quality and reliability of crops is also very attractive to the market.
Now the connection has been made and the import put to test, it is just a matter of working through a few finer details according to Ms Watson.
"We are very different in how we currently package some of our products, and we have a lot of food for thought on how we can do business with these customers," she said.
"There is some further research we need to do on what sort of Minimum Residue Levels that they accept, every country has a different MRL and we need to understand what they will accept and grow our produce to their standard.
"We will trial some more shipments, larger shipments, we obviously need to understand what volumes they are looking for, it's a really, really big country with a lot of people, we need to ensure we have the volume and capacity."
Cucumbers and capsicums grown in the Bundaberg region will also be part of the export into the Netherlands.
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