Following the Egyptian Navel orange season, Denimpex received weekly fresh arrivals of the Egyptian Valencias. "The harvest of the Navels was a little smaller than in previous years and the harvest of the Valencias slightly larger. Some Navel trees have been cut down, and replaced by Valencias," says Joey Deen. "The size sorting is a bit smaller this year, which means that the larger sizes have limited availability."
"The price of the Valencias is between 7.50 and 8 Euro at the moment. "The East Block countries especially are traditionally good in the market for Egyptian oranges. The Greek season is coming to an end and the Spanish are generally more expensive, which means the choice falls on Egyptian citrus. But the Valencia season is still starting up and the market isn't too eager so far this year. I expect more demand within two weeks," says Joey.
Russia
Egypt does export to Russia, but as there have been heavy blows in recent years Egyptian exporters are no longer as eager to send a lot of fruit to Russia for fear of claims or non payment. "Most of the Egyptian citrus is sold in surrounding countries. A trial of around 100 containers also went to China last year, and this went so well for both parties that a considerably larger amount is being sent over this year. This means Europe no longer has such a high priority for Egyptian growers."
Denimpex imports around two to five containers of Egyptian oranges every week. "Personally, I believe the Egyptian citrus is under appreciated. It's firm, sweet and has a gorgeous appearance, but the trade seems to prefer the Spanish oranges, even though they're a lot less exclusive. It may be because everything from outside of the EU is viewed as unsafe regarding residues. We work with one of the biggest suppliers from Egypt and they have it 100% under control and have their own laboratory where they check all shipments before sending them. The fact that the NVWA doesn't do GDB documents and samples any more, proves that the respected exporters have the residues under control."
For more information:
Joey Deen
Denimpex
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 10
1011 HB Amsterdam
Tel: +31 20 6246390
Fax: + 31 20 6225448
joey@denimpex.nl
www.denimpex.nl