The SA Citrus Industry Development board says increased Chinese orange production will hurt local growers. South Australia's Citrus Industry Development Board says a boom in China's citrus crop production will hurt Riverland growers as they try to regain their footing in international markets. Chinese citrus production has grown 10% during the past year.

The Board's executive officer Andrew Green says South Australia's declining valencia orange production in drought conditions is making way for more Chinese navel imports on supermarket shelves. "We used to regularly produce crops of 100,000 tonnes and that's a lot of fruit to try and find a home for", he said. "Well now this year, we're talking about 45,000 tonnes and next year, possibly even less which is just mind blowing if you think about it. "They're getting better at their production and they're also scaling up, like they've got big production areas, so cheap labour, large production areas, improving quality, means that they're giving everyone a hard time these days."