“South African grapefruit arrives on empty market”

The South African grapefruit season is about to start for VerDi Import. “We expect the first arrivals of Star Ruby next week. The grapefruit arrives on an empty market, because Spain and Turkey finish the season this week, and the Florida season also ends earlier,” says Conrad Rijnhout.

VerDi receives the first grapefruit from Maswiri Farm from Bonaire, followed by Limpopo and Eastern Cape. “Quality is looking good. Because of a better harvest, we expect slightly more volume than last year. The majority of the volume will consist of sizes 45/50. From week 19, they’ll start packing the White Marsh variety,” Conrad continues.

According to Conrad, South Africa increasingly spreads its volumes over more and more markets, and especially the Asian market is becoming larger for South Africa. For VerDi, the most important markets are the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Eastern and Southern Europe. “The consumption of grapefruit remains stable in any case, and even appears to be recovering again somewhat.”