“There has been a good crop”, says Oron. “July and August are, however, always slow months in terms of sales and movement.” This is due to the holidays in Europe.
Befresh Europe, which is based in Israel, exports, mainly, fruits to Europe and Russia. These include pomegranates, dates, citrus fruits and avocados. It is their third week of shipping pomegranates. “The season is looking good so far and the fruit looks nice this season”, says Oron. They also export dates, focusing on the Medjool variety. This variety’s season will start in two weeks. Oron explained that they focus their promotion on supermarkets as it is not an easy market to break into. “There might come a time when there will an oversupply of this fruit”, he says. “Globally, there are many countries that are planting massive fields of dates.” It can, however, take up to ten years from when it is planted, before this fruit is ready to harvest.
In terms of citrus fruit, they will begin exporting Red Pomelos at the beginning of September, and two weeks later, Red Grapefruits. He does not expect much competition since the southern hemisphere countries have been experiencing a shortage of red grapefruits the whole season. “Everyone here is excited about the situation” says Oron. “I don’t think there will be much competition.”
Although there is a lower supply of citrus this season, the shortage is even more dramatic in avocado crops. “The volume of the early green varieties was okay, but there are less of the Hass variety, for sure," he says. He does not think the heatwave experienced in other parts of the world is to blame, since it was not nearly as severe in Israel.
For more information:
Oron Ziv
BeFresh Europe Ltd.
Tel: +972 4 619 1736
oron@befreshcorp.net
www.befreshcorp.com