Before Thanksgiving, demand for California Navel oranges exceeded supply as the pipeline of Navels was pretty empty. “Harvest started later than normal, which resulted in a gap and record high pricing for a few weeks,” says Garrett Steele with Bravante Produce. Early on during the growing season, the expectation already was for Navel oranges to be late to mature as they follow the bloom of stone fruit. “Given that the stone fruit bloom was late, we were expecting a sluggish start to the Navel season,” commented Steele. Volume didn’t really ramp up until two to three weeks later than normal. “However, right before Thanksgiving, much of the fruit matured causing an influx of volume. As a result, supply is plentiful now.
“While pricing is still high, we are seeing more realistic pricing,” Steele said. At the moment, large size retail Navel oranges as well as 88s and larger are about $24 to $28 per carton. Smaller Navel oranges for foodservice run in the low $20s, between $20 and $22. Steele expects pricing will slowly turn to more historical levels.
It’s typical for movement to be a bit slower this time of year. “However, we expect to see an uptick soon as a result of holiday purchasing,” he shared. In addition, in-store holiday promotions this month are expected to get people to purchase oranges. In the past, Navel oranges were a popular stocking stuffer and considered a luxury item. While today’s stockings are mostly filled with other gifts, oranges are a popular fruit during health awareness month in January.
Shortage of large size lemons
In addition to Navel oranges, lemons are a key item for Bravante Produce. “The California lemon season started well as it was a smooth transition from the import season to the start of the domestic season.” Argentina, Chile, and Mexico finished as California’s season was about to begin.
However, the season has started out with a shortage of large size, fancy fruit. “As a result, pricing of large size fruit is favorable, and most growers focus on size picking right now.” Once the pipeline for large fruit is full, growers will get into a steady pace of picking all sizes. This expected to be around early January. In addition to high pricing, growers are also focused on picking the large sizes first to prevent an abundance of big sizes at the end of the season as fruit continues to grow in size as it matures. “In general, I am hoping for a healthier size range this year compared to last year,” Steele said. “Hopefully, most lemons will be in the range between 200s and 95s and we can minimize 75s towards the end of the season.”
Cara Caras
A smaller offering for Bravante are Cara Cara oranges. “Typically, we like to start picking Cara Caras right before Thanksgiving, but this year, the season started two weeks late and harvest kicked off last week.” Volume will increase by January 1st as consumers would like to start the new year fresh and ask for oranges during health month.
For more information:
Garrett Steele
Bravante Produce
Tel: (+1) 559-638-2929
garrett@bravanteproduce.com
www.bravanteproduce.com