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Domestic sliced oranges see growing demand in school programs

The supply of oranges from California is steady. "There is a lot of good fruit. It's the best time of the year," says Michael Kahaian of First Quality Produce, adding that supply is coming from Central California right now. He also notes that the season started about a week late as growers waited for Brix levels to develop.

However, Choice-grade fruit is shorter in supply which means companies such as First Quality Produce, a foodservice company that largely works supplying schools with produce, are shifting towards using Fancy-grade fruit.

Smaller fruit is also in shorter supply which is also the kind of fruit that would be used for school programs, many of which stipulate the use of domestic product. "On small fruit, 113s, and 138s are in shorter supply–the volumes are at 72s and 88s," says Kahaian. "Small oranges aren't around as much anymore. Growers don't aim to make small oranges because their profit is based on the larger oranges."

Kahaian says sliced oranges help fill nutritional requirements in many school programs and every year the need for them is growing.

Moving to sliced
Meanwhile, while the availability of small oranges is shrinking, the demand for oranges as part of a school program is growing which means the company has shifted to sliced oranges. "The sliced oranges help fill nutritional requirements and every year the need for sliced oranges is growing," says Kahaian.

This is similar to what domestic grapes and apples have gone through in their places in school programs. "Apple slices took off because there weren't any more small apples so the apple-slicing people found a niche and can now make a perfect weight to whatever that requirement might be. Then, schools aren't forced to buy big apples," says Kahaian. "Those programs have grown over the last 10 years and we hope this will continue to happen in citrus."

While demand continues to grow for sliced oranges, pricing this year is similar to last year. "We haven't seen any drastic price changes, though those are more often driven by weather," says Kahaian.

For more information:
Michael Kahaian
First Quality Produce
Tel: +1 (559) 442-1932
[email protected]
https://firstqualityproduce.com/