South African citrus is now its thirteenth year on the US market. Volumes have been steadily increasing over the years.Marc Solomon, Senior Vice President of Capespan North America, said the first of this season's clementines will be shipped in late June, "This is dependent on the availability of US citrus, we may have to wait until the first week in July. We are always very careful to come in after the US season."
Clementines are becoming more popular in the US as more is grown domestically, the Navel variety of orange is the most popular eating variety. Capespan will start shipping Navels in July.
South Africa will send around 1 million cartons of oranges and a few hundred thousand cartons of clementines. Capespan have a 25% share of the US market for South African citrus. As well the Capespan brand, citrus is marketed under the Outspan label and individual grower's brands.
"The volume of Star Ruby grapefruit is also increasing and in future years we expect it to grow significantly when the young trees come into production," explains Solomon.Citrus going to the US has to go through a cold sterile treatment, but according to Soloman this has become routine for growers who export to the US.
For more information:
Marc Soloman
Capespan North American
Email: marcjsolomon@gmail.com
