Difficult citrus market in Southern Europe.docVIP

Difficult citrus market in Southern Europe The European citrus market seems to be flat at the moment and this is also the case in France. Olivier Fakhri, Georges Helfer SA, a French importer of South African citrus, explains that grapefruit did well at the end of May / beginning of June but has been difficult since then. The price has been decreasing and has now reached a critical level of 9-10 Euro for 35s- 40s and 8 Euros for 50s-55s. Lower levels are even heard of in Northern Europe (Holland). South African grapefruit was a couple of weeks early this year which has clashed with seasonal fruit (apricots, melons, stone fruits) and has had a big affect on demand. The European market has an excess of grapefruit at the moment which is proving difficult to shift. Argentinean grapefruit is still on the market and selling cheap at 6-7 Euros and the Mexican grapefruit has also just entered the market and will be arriving in volumes from the end of August. According to Olivier the quality of South African grapefruit is not a problem and the fruit which has been in storage is still, on average, of fair quality. He hopes the end of the summer holidays will improve demand for citrus, above all for grapefruit. He would like to clear off grapefruit stocks by the end of September before too many origins hit the market (Mexico, Turkey, Israel). As far as oranges are concerned, when the first South African oranges arrived mid-July, they entered a market still full of Spanish fruit, but due to the poor quality most retailers are now finally switching to South African oranges. The end of July saw some volumes of big counts 48/56 Valencias available on the market and importers experienced some difficulties in selling these sizes, which was not good for Valencias. According to figures from South African producers, they expect to export 20 to 30% less oranges this season, above all for small counts 72/88/105 where importers are expecting a good market demand in the coming weeks, with