Some Australian orange juice has been labelled to tell consumers that imported fruit has replaced local product, as overseas buyers snap up blemished Australian citrus.
Third-generation citrus grower Ben Cant, who farms in the South Australian Riverland, said the lowest-grade oranges usually ended up as juice but higher prices were now being offered from overseas.
"Stuff with lots of blemishes, not the prettiest fruit, that goes to the juice factory," he said.
"What's happened though is the export demand has been so strong that there've been countries buying that class-3 fruit that we would normally send to the juice factory."
Some local bottlers have been caught out and have had to import juice to replace their previous local supplies, Mr Cant said.
"Our juice suppliers have been operating on maybe an oversupply mentality for so long that they think that they think they can just pay 15-20 cents a kilo for this fruit," he said.
"But the growers have had better options to send it overseas, so that's what they've done. It's just tightened up that market and dried up all the supply."
