According to the Sing Tao Daily from Australia, some plantation owners in the country have revealed that recently, some Chinese buyers entered Australia with travel visas and large amounts of cash to buy grapes still growing on the vines. The Black Economy Taskforce is investigating into this.
Plantation owners from Victoria and South Australia claimed to have received cash payments for as much as AUD 56,000 from Chinese buyers with whole cases of cash of 50 or 100-AUD notes. These buyers purchased a whole container of grapes and shipped them directly to China. Labor market experts pointed out that these buyers could have also hired low-cost Asian workers to pick and pack the fruits for them after the purchase before shipping the grapes to the nearest port in refrigerated containers.
Due to the crop failure of grapes in North Australia this year, the prices of grapes have risen to a new record of AUD 3.5 per kilo, around 25% higher than the previous years. The same situation happened to some plantation owners in the eastern coastal area and Tasmania. Every year, of the 170,000 tons of fresh grapes produced in Australia, around two thirds are exported to other countries.
