Western Australia's largest table grape grower has warned of dire consequences for growers across the country if delays in Chinese customs clearances continue.
Shipping containers are being held in Chinese ports for as long as 14 days while quarantine and customs authorities check for contamination and COVID-19.
Chinese consumers buy almost half of Australia's total export of the product, with the market of mainly crimson seedless grapes worth about $300 million.
Fruitico, WA's biggest table grape producer, exports half of what it grows and sends about 70 per cent of that to China.
Chief executive Roger Fahl said the fruit, which usually cleared customs in a day or two, was being held for weeks.
"Our importers are basically saying that there is definitely a concerted effort from customs and other people to target these shipments, but no real reasons officially," he said.
Market becoming 'unviable'
Fruitico had already cut back on export volumes for China with an expectation the market would be too unstable by next year.
"I don't think the market will officially close, but they just are just making it unviable," Mr Fahl said.
Mr Fahl said despite consumer demand for Australian fruit there were industry rumours that Chinese supermarket chains had been pressured to stop stocking Australian products.
"The way it is being done is very much not officially, it is just all of this unofficial stuff that is going on," he said.
Mr Fahl said that made reporting the problem to Australian trade authorities difficult.
"The Chinese just come back and say, 'There is nothing official, so what are you complaining about?'" he said.
"It is no different, I guess, to the lobsters, where [they] are just going to hold product up in airports looking for heavy metals which were never found.
"The Chinese are being relatively smart, I guess, about the way it is — going about it is all unofficial … but it's definitely happening."
