The citrus season is in full swing at Direct Source International. Spanish mandarins, Oronules, have finished and the importer is now busy with availability of Clemenules and Esval. Shortly the Clemenvilla season will also start. In the orange sector, DSI have Navelina's available. "The Spanish Salustiana season has begun, but we are waiting with that because there is enough supply from South Africa and the quality and taste is very good," explained Maarten van Fraassen.
Jan de Sterke and Maarten van Fraassen
"We deliver an exclusive line from Spain 'La Violette' in an 8 kg amount. These are sorted by hand - in colour, taste and appearance. Clemenules in the traditional 10 kg amount are delivered with or without leaves in the Agribur brand" explained Maarten. "At the beginning of the Spanish season there were small amounts of good mandarins and the market moved quickly. Due to it being very warm in Spain, too warm for the time of year, the colour was a little behind, and some of the early varieties, such as Oronules with the good colour and taste were not overflowing in availability."
Still more focus outside Europe
"Sales of Spanish Navelina's remains slow," explained the trader. "There is generally sufficient volume available, particularly in the small sizes. The main portion of larger sizes goes to Eastern Europe, and they are now limited and continue to sell well. The biggest challenge in the citrus market is in maintaining the quality. We try to offer good, constant brands, which the client can come back for. Additionally our focus goes more towards the global market, and not just Europe. Our fruit goes all over Europe, but there is also increasing demand from other continents. For example, mandarins go from Spain and Morocco directly to Asia or South America."
DSI supplies Moroccan clementines from Agadir and Berkane. The importer explained, "Berkane clementines are certainly valued for their outstanding colour and taste more than the fruit from Agadir. Morocco began last week with the production of Navel New Hall and Salustiana."
"Citrus prices are low at the moment because there is lots of volume and not a lot of demand. The Moroccan fruit from Agadir is sold for a particularly low price."
"Obviously Spanish citrus suffers directly but their prices are not unreasonable. Prices for leaf clementines are more stable and there is no competition from Morocco. There is sufficient supply from Spain and Morocco and the market is a little slower than a couple of weeks ago. Expectation is that these levels will remain until around week 51 when there will then be different promotions from retailers."
Israel
"We received the first minneolas, Belfresh, from Israel last week. They have been well received, for both their colour and taste. There is not lots of volume available in Israel just now, but the expectation is that the market for minneolas will remain stable over the coming weeks. In two weeks we expect to receive the first OR mandarin from Israel. This is a highly valued variety in Europe."
For more information:
Maarten van Fraassen
Direct Source International
Tel: +31 (0)78-6749197
maarten@direct-source.nl
www.direct-source.nl