The export of Moro oranges to Europe has started this week. We asked Pietro Russo, one of the leading experts in Sicilian agriculture, to share his thoughts as regards the situation on the market.
Moro oranges
"Quality is very good with a deep colour like never before. Hopefully buyers will be interested. Negotiations are currently within the norm and prices are not noteworthy, even though there is a slight increase of around 10% compared to last year. However, this increase is not perceived by producers, who have to deal with processing waste due to excessively low grades."
The dry summer has caused a lot damage so far. "Not all retailers are interested in placing orders at the moment, but we are confident they will soon. Sweden, Denmark and Norway generally start things off, but it seems Germany and Austria will be a few weeks early this year. After all, both internal and external colour are excellent."
"The produce is sent to Central Europe, with the recent addition of Hungary, the Czech Republish, Slovakia, Poland and Romania. We are hoping for demand to increase, and the fact that our Moro oranges are unique should help us with this. There are indeed blood oranges but, at the moment, there is not a lot of competition, although some produce from North Africa is starting to become available."
"At the moment, quantities are limited and there is no way to understand how things will develop, so we can say there are no significant competitors. The Tarocco season will also start soon, although fruits are not very pigmented at the moment. The trend is in fact to bring harvesting forward thanks to varieties that pigment early."