"Lemons are a hot item at the moment"

The Spanish orange season is being characterised as the worst season even. "Due to the warm weather without a cold period, the citrus fruit was not in demand over the last few months. As well as this, an oversupply of Egyptian and Moroccan oranges caused huge price pressure," explains Toine van Hoof of FRS Holland, the sales office of the Spanish citrus exporter Frutas Romu, which, with three packaging stations in the areas Valencia-Murcia-Castellon, has an export volume of around 50,000 tonnes per year.

 "Besides the bad prices, there was also a lot of drop out in the packaging stations this season. This will certainly have consequences for the Spanish citrus sector, but what these consequences will be, will only become evident over the coming months. But the whole citrus market was not bad. The sales of mandarins went reasonably quick after a tough start and the Nadorcott season has been good," says Toine. "We are also still receiving a sufficient supply of oranges from Spain. The Valencia season is starting slowly, but I can see the Spanish Valencias losing market space to Egypt and Morocco in the long term. The size division on the tree isn't that good in Spain and these oranges are being sold on the local market more and more, and more focus is being placed on the late Navel varieties at the cost of the Valencias."

FRS Holland works with various suppliers besides Frutas Romu, from Spain as well as Zimbabwe, South Africa and South America, so that a complete citrus assortment can be offered all year round. "Lemons are a hot item at the moment," says Toine. "The Spanish Verna lemons are well paid for and very limited volumes are expected from Argentina. The industry prices in Argentina are rocketing. It will be an expensive lemon year regardless. There is talk of 40 to 50% less from Argentina and figures indicate that up until week 18 90% less lemons were loaded compared to last year."

According to the importer it is impossible to tell how the South African season will go. "The EU has hardly spoken about the measures concerning black spot. This is why we are concentrating more and more on the black spot free fruit coming from Zimbabwe, which is a good alternative for our customers. There is also the big question of what Russia will do and what volumes the producers dare send to Russia. South African producers will want to send as much as possible straight to Russia, but on the other hand, they can't do without Europe. At the moment importing is more expensive for the Russians due to the devaluation of the ruble and many Ukrainian consumers are not thinking about oranges. This does have a negative effect of the price formation. The expectation is that the size division of the South African citrus will be different and that there will be slightly less volumes. I expect a similar price level as last year."