“The season will end sooner than last year due to the lighter crop than we had last season,” says Randy Jacobson of Orange Cove, Ca.-based Cecelia Packing Corp. Cecelia’s supply hails largely from central California. “Most of the competition for oranges is coming from mandarins both imported and domestic. There isn't much left in Florida and I believe Texas is pretty well cleaned up,” adds Jacobson.
Sizing challenges
Jacobson notes that many of the late season varieties of oranges are larger and can be a challenge to market after April. “Medium and smaller-sized fruit should strengthen as the crop sizes up,” he says.
In terms of demand, the primary consumer of the California citrus remains the domestic market. “We have seen an increase though in the export business in the last several weeks—primarily to South Korea,” says Jacobson. He characterizes general consumption to be modest at best however. “What will drive markets is the availability of fruit,” he says. “As smaller and medium-sized packers finish their seasons, it puts the available supply in fewer hands. Fewer sellers will help to stabilize things and hopefully the industry will see prices increase.”
Pricing shift?
Jacobson notes that prices have been a bit weaker in the last few weeks. “But that’s in relation to historic pricing—they’ve been pretty high all season,” he says. “Certainly higher than a year ago.”
Looking ahead, Jacobson says that one challenge facing the business is managing supply relative to the available business. “We want to have enough fruit to do the business. We have been careful not to over pick and weaken our position on a size or grade relative to others in the market,” he says.
For more information:
Randy Jacobson
Cecilia Packing Corporation
Tel: +1 559 626 7411
rjacobson@ceceliapack.com
www.ceceliapack.com