It's an Egyptian citrus season wherein Bulgarian fresh produce importer and exporter Triland has to move carefully, says company CEO Mariya Dermendzhieva: "For the first time in many seasons, the Egyptian citrus exporters are moving carefully in each market they target and put efforts to keep the prices at reasonable levels for both exporters and importers. This is supported in the farms, where bigger sizes are available, and the fact that a few new citrus concentrate and fruit puree factories started operating. There are significant volumes of industrial quality oranges and mandarins absorbed by these factories, for good prices."
According to Dermendzhieva, multiple factors have led to relatively stable prices for the Egyptian citrus this year. "The season of Valencia oranges is expected to be slightly shorter, this year. Many growers learned the lesson from last year, which is that the sorting costs and the risk of greenish and soft arrivals are much higher than the premium price that is expected for late-season shipments. This, combined with the fact that some farms have citrus that is non-suitable for the EU, leads to stable price offers for the European market, where we've added two more countries to our portfolio of partners. Traditionally, we work on programs with fixed prices and this way of work has been successful for over 12 years now."
Looking at the Asian markets, the situation is very different depending on the country, Dermendzhieva explains: "Asian markets seem to be quite different in the way they plan and manage their orders. Indonesian clients have problems obtaining quotas, or the released volume is small. At the same time, they see the price levels are high and risky. Singapore is open for plans and weekly supply, but leave doors open to ask for market support. Hong Kong suffered from the oversupply and to some point still suffers from it, so we target late March, April, and May arrivals for this market. Vietnam is also postponing orders, but Egyptian exporters are hesitant to ship there, as for the last few years the market there has not been very friendly for the Egyptian oranges especially."
For the Honey Murcott mandarins, it's been a positive season so far, Dermendzhieva states. "Meanwhile, Honey Murcott mandarins are quite popular. The crop is very small and is mainly seeing big sizes. Clients who buy this fruit traditionally already locked their volumes for the next six to eight weeks. We're happy that the packing and shipments are running smoothly so far and we see equally good demand and good prices all over the world."
"If I have to summarize the 2025 season, I would call it a promising season. Careful steps must be taken, as there might be a trap with the small counts of Valencia oranges, which are the only category that I expect to go cheaper as we enter further into production," Dermendzhieva concludes.
For more information:
Mariya Dermendzhieva
Triland JSC
Tel: +359 89 850 2797
Email: [email protected]