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Season will end early

South Africa: Grapefruit volumes dip

Export volumes of South African grapefruit are down on pre-season predictions. In March the estimate was 12.6 million, 17kg cartons, but this has now been reduced to 11.3 million, a significant drop.

John Edmonds from the Citrus Growers Association said the decrease is due to small sizes. The season is also expected to finish earlier because packers are working at a high tempo to get through the grapefruit so they can start on the Valencia crop.

As a result of the smaller sizes any big grapefruit are selling at a premium. Grapefruit stocks in Japan are said to be at there lowest level since 2005 and the first four shipments from South Africa are eagerly awaited.

Florida grapefruit supplies to the EU have reduced to levels last seen in 2004/5 (Source Fruitrop), this coupled with reduced shipments from Cyprus, static Turkish supply and modest increases from Spain and Israel (Source CLAM), means that South Africa entered an under-supplied market with fair returns to the supplier.