Edward Out, general director OTC-Holland explains the first arrival of organic citrus. "Our Starruby grapefruits come from the area along the Orange River, close to Kakamas and Augrabies, situated in the Northwest of South Africa. The availability of organic grapefruits is large and as yet, every year we are not successful in selling the entire harvest as organic. That is a pity, because a large volume of organically grown fruit disappears at going prices to the Middle and Far East."
"Only a select group of permanent supermarkets in Europe sell South African Starruby grapefruit on a somewhat larger scale. It remains difficult to persuade supermarkets to show organic grapefruit on the shelves for one import season only. Even at the same prices," Edward sighs.
After the Starruby's, the first harvest of organic lemons from North and East Cape regions starts at the end of April. We expect the first arrivals in the middle of May, around now. The volumes are, just as with the oranges, under pressure. This is the result of an estimated 15-20% of the lemons being rejected before the sorting line because of stricter controls on the citrus sickness 'black spot'."
"The months of June to October inclusive will be concentrated on organic oranges at OTC-Holland: from the middle of June the first Navels will arrive, followed by Midknights and in July by Valencia's.
"The expectations for prices of lemons and oranges are good. "This is very important because of the fact that labour, electricity and logistics are taking up a larger part of the cost price all the time. The recently imposed increase in wages of the South African labourers in combination with the increased sea freight tariffs since 1 January are the cause of the automatically increasing cost price."
OTC-Holland annually import 4,000 tons of certified organic citrus fruit from South Africa. Out: "We closely work together with a fixed number of South African suppliers of organic citrus in the areas of quality, planning and spreading of outlets. Together with our suppliers we take care of stable quality supplies to our clients in bulk or small packings. During the season we supply specialized wholesalers and various European chain stores directly with packed citrus products."
