Impossible to quantify the impact of American tariffs on the rest of the citrus trade at this point, but other markets have all been receiving higher volumes of citrus from South Africa, and among them is Russia, where Pomona Fruit has built a reputation as a solid retail supplier of citrus, pomefruit, and stonefruit.
On its way to Saint Petersburg are Valencia, late Mandarins, Star Ruby grapefruit, lemons, pears, and the last of the season's apples, to be sold in growers' own brands.
"Price levels and consumption for apples were excellent. But in a normal season, it can be very different," remarks Stephen Paulsen, sales director at Pomona Fruit. South Africa supplies apples counter-seasonally to Russia and its neighbours' own production.
They provide a differentiated catalogue with Pink Lady, Top Red, Royal Gala, Royal Beauty, and Granny Smith at the top end and less-coloured apples at the other end of the retail offering. Forelle pears sell well, as they currently do all over the world, being the only available blush pears at this time.
"Normally, we load apples from week 18 to week 30. That's what we did over the past two seasons. This season, we started around week 12 because Russia's domestic supply stopped earlier than usual. Prolonging the pome season has been a challenge the past few years, so this season was a nice change in terms of the added weeks."
© Pomona Fruit South African fruit on supermarket shelves in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg
Challenging soft citrus season
Soft citrus exports took some time to get going this season, compacting fruit into a short period. "August is a very poor month for sales in Russia," Paulsen notes. "And a lot of fruit arrived from the end of June, July, and August, and the sales on soft citrus from the wholesale market have been poor, specifically concerning clementines and Novas."
The Western and Eastern Cape had decent clementine crops, and it put pressure on the European and Russian wholesale market. Russian retail performed well, quality permitting. "It depends every year on what Europe does. They consume the most clems. It's a difficult conundrum to solve at the end of the day, and it's probably the truth that on the soft citrus side, we will have pressure on clementines and Novas in the future, as newer varieties are harvested earlier in different parts of the country. Even more reason for us to stick to retail with regards to these varieties, with the increased offering in soft citrus year on year."
© Pomona Fruit
The number of oranges sent by South Africa to Russia doubled this season: the early Navel and Valencia oranges from the north of the country were very large, with the trend continuing on later varieties of Valencias. Prices have been down a little of late, he remarks, but oranges are currently in a better position than last season, because of the Ruble exchange rate.
"Significant amounts of oranges are, however, still on the water, and the wholesale market will come under pressure in the coming weeks, I believe. Hopefully, that coincides with better consumption in the market, which September normally brings. But again, I think our volumes are a bit large, and I think that wholesale will struggle to reach the levels of the fixed price deals. I think there's going to be a problem not in terms of sizing, but of pricing."
© Pomona Fruit
For more information:
Stephen Paulsen
Pomona Fruit
Tel: +27 084 593 0145
[email protected]
