conspires to strangle the industry.

Packing sheds say the normally frantic navel season has come to a screeching halt, with growers leaving oranges to rot on trees and sheds dumping hundreds of tonnes a week in local paddocks for cattle feed.

A rising tide of cheap imports, aggravated by the high Aussie dollar, is allowing juice companies to offer as little as $25 a tonne for navels, while the fruit is selling for as low as $4 a box in the city markets.

“This is the worst the dumping has ever been in the history of the local industry,” Tharbogang grower John Sergi said.

“The high dollar is just killing us.”

Jason Restagno from Lakesview Citrus said for the first time in many years, his packing shed had not sent a single navel to juice companies.

“I actually had to pay someone to take 120 bins away this morning to dump for cattle,” Mr Restagno said.

Other packing sheds are sending navels back to the growers as they come in.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and this is one of the hardest seasons I’ve seen,” Don Centofanti from Golden West Packing House said.

“There’s an oversupply of fruit so the major chains, which control 80 per cent of the market, are pushing hard on price.”

Clear Lake Citrus’ Pat Mancini, who is dumping about 30 tonnes of navels each week, said a lack of confidence in the consumer market was also driving down demand.

“People aren’t spending and when they go to the supermarket they’re buying just what they need and often cutting out fruit and veg,” Mr Mancini said.

CEO of Fruit Juice Australia Geoff Parker denied claims juice companies were taking advantage of growers.

“It’s a perfect storm at the moment, the high dollar, people generally turning away from juice because of, we think, the anti-sugar campaigners. The cheap import isn’t helping farmers,” Mr Parker said.

“It’s obviously distressing when growers are dumping crops but the crop that is being dumped is of the navel variety and navel oranges can’t be used in juice because they’re bitter.”

Follow @TheAreaNews