“We’re finishing up in District One in California and we are seeing really large fruit,” says Bianca Kaprielian of Fruit World Co. Inc. in Reedley, Ca. “We are peaking on 63s and 75s. We’re starting to pick in District Two since we are experiencing demand for the smaller profile lemons there.”
While supply of organic lemons looks steady from the state and similar to last year’s levels, the larger-sized fruit is a bit of an issue. “Because there’s less fruit on the trees, the individual fruits size up larger,” says Kaprielian. “Also we’re seeing new plantings and younger trees tend to produce bigger fruit. Once we move into District Two, we have more established trees which produce the smaller sized fruit that many of our customers are looking for.”
Little competition
Kaprielian also notes she’s not seeing much by way of competing organic lemons right now. “We’re coming off of California’s strong period. But come July, August, when California supply becomes limited, imports from Mexico will fill in the supply gap,” she says, adding that she is hearing that organic lemon supply from Mexico could be down this coming season 10 to 20 percent.
Meanwhile demand continues to gain for this organic citrus and it could be beyond the general growth many organic commodities are seeing. “The economy is doing well and that tends to correlate with stronger organic demand. Lemons are also one of those items where a customer is okay with a blemish or a scar. It doesn’t have to be quite as perfect because typically they use it for juice,” she says. In addition, Kaprielian notes that there doesn’t tend to be a high dollar difference in stores between organic and conventional lemon prices. “So if you have an organic-minded consumer and the price differential isn’t great, they’ll choose the organic,” she says.
Same pricing
Altogether, that puts pricing similar to last year with one notable difference. “There’s a big price spread between the smaller sizes and the larger sizes. The smaller sizes, the 115s and the 140s, are the preferred sizes typically and they are limited. We are seeing stronger pricing on those sizes compared to last year,” she says. “But on the large sizes, the 63s and the 75s, we’re seeing a $15+ price spread.” She also notes that prices from here on in should climb until August when the Mexican supply begins.
Looking ahead, Kaprielian believes Fruit World Co. is heading into District Two in a good position. “But there have been a lot of winds down in Southern California and winds cause the fruit to bang up against the tree. That causes scarring. It’s not uncommon but we’re seeing a slight uptick in scarring,” she says. “However as we transition, we’ll be in a slightly better position in terms of size profile, and over the next couple of weeks and months we expect to see the prices continue to increase.”
For more information:
Bianca Kaprielian
Fruit World Co. Inc.
Tel: +1 (510) 292-1876
bianca@fruitworldco.com