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Pomelos MBC, pioneer in planting the Israeli Sweetie variety in Spain: "It has so far been very well-accepted"

Spanish grapefruit season starts with higher prices and a predominance of small sizes

The 2023/2024 Spanish grapefruit season is already underway with the arrival of the first lots at the points of sale. Prices are higher in general due to the high prices at origin, where small sizes abound.

This season's Spanish grapefruit production is estimated at 90,000 tons, slightly over 1% more than last season, although the production potential is expected to increase in the coming years, given the pace of planting in Andalusia and Murcia.

"We started with the first lots of Spanish Star Ruby in week 43," says Miguel Barber, from Pomelos MBC, Spain's leading grapefruit exporter, with customers in the main EU countries. "The demand is slow due to the rising price of the fruit, since higher production costs must be passed on, especially for inputs such as irrigation water, salaries, etcetera."

Also, as we are seeing with other citrus species, the ripening of grapefruit has been slowed down by the higher than usual temperatures recorded to date. "That is why while some chains are already switching to Spanish grapefruit because of its freshness (given that it arrives at points of sale a few days after being harvested), others still prefer the last batches from South Africa, as they have a better balance between sweetness and acidity due to being in a more advanced stage of ripeness. Spanish grapefruit will become sweeter as the weeks go by," says Miguel Barber.

After having visited all the producing areas in Spain, Barber says that "there is great disparity in the sizes, depending on the tree, but generally, the small ones predominate, at least during the first part of the campaign. The prospect is for sizes to grow during the second part of the campaign."

This year, the Valencian company is exporting the Israeli grapefruit variety Sweetie, also known as Oroblanco, for the first time. "We planted it three years ago and were the first to do so in Spain, and this is our first year with production. It has so far been very well-accepted by our retail customers. It is marketed with green skin, but its pulp has a sweet flavor. It is an exclusive product with a commercial window between mid-September and late November," says Miguel Barber.

For more information:
Miguel Barber
Pomelos MBC
Avinguda de l’Estatut, 5 . P. I. Les Vinyes
46711 Miramar, Valencia. Spain
T: +34 962 81 91 08
info@pomelosmbc.com
www.pomelosmbc.es