The Spanish citrus season has already started with the earliest mandarin varieties, such as satsumas. Next week, the harvest will increase for companies such as Iberia Fruit Fresh with the start of the clementine season, which will begin with Clemenrubí. "In general, these early varieties, such as satsumas, with a paler coloration, are destined for specific markets because many European countries prefer fruit with a more intense color," stated Florin Nicolae Belu, the Murcian company's export manager. "The Clemenules is, without a doubt, the market's best accepted clementine variety in terms of quality, flavor, and convenience as it is an easy peeler. It is a significant part of our season."
"This year, we expect medium and small sizes will predominate in clementines, oranges, and lemons due to the lack of rain. Currently, only 10-15% of the lemons correspond to a size 3, 50% to a size 4, and the rest to a size 5/6. The first orange varieties are ranging between size 4 and 7. These are interesting sizes because some markets prefer them, including Germany. In our case, we work with markets that mainly demand these sizes -for example, size 4 and 5 mandarins, for bulk and meshes."
According to forecasts, in the 2024/25 season that is starting, lemon production will decrease by 20.5%. In contrast, orange production will recover by 8.8%, and in Andalusia, in particular, it will increase by 22.4%.
"We are coming from a stone fruit season in which the feeling is that there's been a lack of fruit. Greece and Italy produced fruit but the European market demanded the quality of Spanish fruit so we received more requests than we expected. There was also a lack of fruit at the start of the citrus season, which really kicked off in the penultimate week of September with the first quantities of Primofiori lemon. Since there was a reduction in lemon shipments from Argentina and South Africa, during August the imported lemon was sold at more than 2 euros per kilo and the few quantities of Spanish lemon in the market achieved good prices."
"The Interdonato lemon from Turkey has already entered the market at prices that are hard for the Spanish product to compete against. For example, while France is paying €1.80-1.90/kg for the first quantities of Primofiori Spanish lemon, Turkey has begun to offer it at €1.20/kg at its origin. However, it's mainly Eastern European countries that are absorbing a lot of Turkish merchandise. Markets such as Germany are buying less and less fruit from Turkey because of its non-compliance with limits and phytosanitary active materials," Florin points out. "They prefer to pay more to have Spanish fruit because the Spanish product has to comply with strict quality and health controls before it is distributed and consumed."
"We started the 2024/25 season knowing that we'll have enough orange production and we expect it will be well accepted by the market because of the Spanish fruit's unparalleled flavor and high quality. Our last season finished at the end of May with the last quantities of orange, even though there is a lot of fruit from Egypt on the market."
"The Netherlands introduced a lot of Egyptian orange, which has gained a lot of ground in Europe because it has much lower production costs, acceptable quality, and a lower consumer price."
"It'll be interesting to see what happens next, but what is certain is that many of us have already received many emails and requests to meet at the fair in Madrid from Egyptian exporters who want to expand exports in Europe. However, we are confident in the quality and flavor of the Spanish fruit, a very important factor in an increasingly competitive market."
For more information:
Iberia Fruit Fresh
Florin Nicolae Belu
Export Manager
Tel: (+34) 670 907 515
Email: [email protected]
https://iberiafruitfresh.com