Fruit are picked into 5 kg plastic lugs. As with other citrus varieties, never harvest wet fruit, otherwise fruit may develop oleocellosis. Finger lime growers delay harvest for up to 2 days following wet weather. Fruit should not be picked off the ground. Do not leave harvested fruit in the sun; they should be kept in the shade and placed in the cool room to remove field heat as soon as possible.
Packing and storage
Finger limes are packed into perforated 1 or 2 kg plastic bags and packed into 2 or 5 kg printed fibreboard boxes. There are several finger lime marketing groups who have developed their own product specifications for their own cultivars. Fresh fruit have a shelf life of 4–5 weeks if stored in a cool room at 5–10ºC. However, cultivars do vary in their sensitivity to cool store temperatures. Do not store fruit below 4ºC as they develop chilling injury. Whole fruit and pulp can also be snap frozen and stored for 3–6 months at –18ºC for out-of-season supply. Frozen fruit or pulp should always be defrosted in the fridge. Fruit are transported to market in refrigerated containers.
Marketing
At present most interest and demand for finger limes is from the restaurant trade. The promotion of finger limes as a commodity has mainly been undertaken by individual Australian growers and exporters at national and international food fairs. Articles have also appeared in travel magazines and some well known celebrity chefs have also promoted the fruit in their recipes.
Currently both domestic and export market prices are very good largely because volumes are still small and demand is outweighing supply. Dollar returns to growers for export quality fruit are between $40–60/kg and $25–40/kg for the domestic fresh fruit market. Most domestic fruit is sold in the central fruit and vegetable markets in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Small quantities of fruit are also supplied direct to retailers and restaurants, particularly in northern NSW and south-eastern Queensland where most of the fruit is currently grown. Around 50% of Australian finger lime production is currently exported to markets in Europe and Asia. In 2008/09 total production from Australia was estimated at around 10 tonnes.
The export requirements for overseas markets vary and need to be checked with the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) at www.daffa.gov.au/aqis. For example the European Union (EU) currently require that orchards be inspected prior to harvest for the presence of black spot (a fungal disease that occurs in some regions of Australia). There are also domestic quarantine regulations. For example, fruit grown in areas with Queensland fruit fly cannot be sent to other regions and states free of this pest without treatment. There are costs associated with any mandatory inspections required to obtain export permits.