At the moment there is a large supply of Spanish Salustiana's resulting in low prices of 7.50 to 10 Euro. Competition from Egypt, which comes to the market with a large harvest, with selling prices of between 6.50 and 7.50 Euro depending on the quality.
Morocco this year has a harvest of Valencia Late, which is only 50 to 60 percent of the level of the last few years.
Of old Spain is the supplier of the West European retailers. Weekly or once every two weeks a price is established and that the retailer pays the shippers. That is the reason for the preference of the retailers for Spanish citrus. Morocco deals with completely different organisations, often with intermediaries, with whom it is difficult to trade. In general the retailer earns more from the Spanish trade.
Price-wise the Egyptian oranges are becoming more interesting. The transport from Southern Spain costs 2,750 to 3,000 Euro per vehicle. Transport by sea from Egypt costs about 1,800 dollars each container. With that the logistic expenses are about 60/65% of those of their Spanish colleagues and the Egyptian oranges are a lot cheaper in the Netherlands when arriving.
The Salustiana's are followed by the Valencia Late in Spain. Huelva-Cordoba is by far the biggest production area of the Salustiana's and the Valencia Late. The harvest in Spain this year is about as big as last year. Only the assortment of sizes is a lot smaller this year. There are far more sizes 5-7 on the market. Importers speak of good quality juicing oranges.
In the production area of Valencia many citrus producers have changed to growing persimmon. Furthermore production moves to the south more and more. At the moment there are still a lot of older producers active in Valencia. Insiders say the Navel-Late from Valencia are the nicest, but the Lane-Late from the south is just more tasty. Traditionally the citrus in Valencia is stronger due weather conditions, but the differences are becoming smaller because of the new improvement techniques.
As far as taste is concerned there is always a lot of praise for the Turkish oranges, which are called by traders 'rich' and 'the nicest oranges'. This is amongst others the result of the product being on the trees for longer. The opposite of that is that the shelf life of the Turkish oranges is not too long. Often the Turkish oranges remain in their own country or are exported to Russia.
Russia is becoming a bigger client of European citrus all the time. Especially the Turkish and Greek oranges go in great quantities to Russia, which works on the basis of fixed price arrangements. Greece has a good harvest this year, but Russia took most of this. Also Morocco exports a lot of citrus to Russia, but because of the strong local market Morocco expects to keep a lot of oranges in its own country this year. Also the Middle East, where there are more people to be fed than in Western Europe, is interested in becoming a client.
South Africa have agreed a wage increase of 53% for labourers after the strikes. Added to the increased cost of shipping the cost price of South African citrus has increased quite a lot. Because of competition by the Egyptian and Spanish product not too many oranges from South Africa are expected. Later in the season the export will probably start again.