Easypeelers gain importance for South Africa
"Don Limón: "The right amount of fruit for the right market"
A large importer of grapefruit from South Africa is the German firm Don Limón. CEO Andreas Schindler reports: “We are very satisfied with this season. The prices for grapefruit were especially good this year. We are expecting the campaign to proceed further with success.” The worldwide operating fruit wholesale trader from Hamburg works together with producers from many different regions in South Africa. Due to the different climate conditions, the company is able to offer the customers larger quantities of fruit from the beginning until the end of the season.
Andreas Schindler, CEO of Don Limón
The situation was bad last year
Don Limon imports his fruit among others from South Africa. A citrus exporter from South Africa knows: “While the situation was really bad for many producers last year, it is going all the better this year. The people are working together and provide the right markets with the right quantities of fruit. The markets are being kept a little tighter on purpose, which makes the situation a bit simpler for us.” Furthermore grapefruit are once again qualitatively perfect, says the expert.
Germany: No demand for white grapefruit
As opposed to, for example Japan, where white grapefruit are very popular, Germany has no market for these. “There is no demand for the white grapefruit in Germany. Customers exclusively order the pink variety on the German market,” the expert explains.
“Easypeeler”
According to Schindler, beside the grapefruit from South Africa, grapefruit from Mexico are currently appearing with “very high and good prices”. The Don Limón CEO thinks that the so-called “Easypeelers” (mandarins) will also become more and more interesting for South African producers and exporters. “Easypeelers are becoming more important for South Africa as a production country, because Asia is becoming more interesting as a sales market.”
The South African expert says the demand for mandarins is also very high on the European and North American markets. “In response to last year, many producers have switched to easily peeled mandarins. This accommodates the increased demand from Asia, North America and Europe well,” the exporter explains. “Due to the change, the cultivation area for grapefruit has somewhat reduced.”
“The right quantities of fruit for the right markets”
He hopes to find the positive situation again next season. “We believe that the market has learned from last season, and that we can retrieve the current situation in the coming season. The market needs to somehow provide the right markets with the right amounts of fruit for good prices in the future as well.”
Andreas Schindler
Don Limón
Trade office of Pilz Schindler GmbH
Bankstraße 28, 20097 Hamburg
Deutschland
aschindler@don-limon.de
www.don-limon.de