A great deal of discipline from the grapefruit sector, keeping marginal counts out of the market, has set the current grapefruit campaign – just over halfway through – on the right course, says Rowan Vickery, head of citrus at Capespan South Africa. “And if this discipline is maintained, coupled with a significantly smaller crop than last year, we should have a very good year.”
Grapefruit is the one crop that has been running earlier as growers have select-picked on colour, spurred on by empty markets in both Europe and the Far East. Good consumption in the Northern Hemisphere and a Floridian crop that the last few years has fallen away, creates space for South Africa.
“At the beginning of the season there was a relatively empty market with some really good prices. The basis of our marketing is to put the fruit across all markets, acting responsibly, spreading it across the full season. In that way there’s a better chance as stock remains stable and markets are able to absorb them.”
He notes that if marginal counts are sent on the back of a strong run, it can quickly add a million cartons to the export figure “and then you’re back where you started”.
He points to the beneficial role of the grapefruit focus group in directing the activities of exporters and growers, providing information and constantly revising grapefruit volumes (downwards, as the case has been this season).
The original crop estimate of 15.1 million 17kg equivalent cartons (or 17.1 million 15kg equivalent) now rests at 13.8 million 17kg equivalent cartons, a decrease of 10% on the original estimate.
Northwest Europe takes bigger calibre grapefruit (but smaller sizes for bagging), Spain a mix and Italy prefers smaller counts, while Japan takes everything and China the middle to top end of small fruit. Really large fruits are sent to Russia.
Marginal counts are sent for juicing; the local juicing price is relatively good at the moment.
For more information:
Rowan Vickery
Capespan
Tel: +27 21 917 2600
Email: Rowan_vickery@capespan.co.za
https://www.capespan.com/