With Turkish grapefruit still several weeks away, Israeli grapefruit shippers will enjoy a good export market to Europe for a few more weeks. As Turkish and Spanish fruit appear, prices will come down and Israeli shipments will phase out.
“We started shipping grapefruit three weeks ago,” said Oron Ziv of Befresh Europe. “We had a late start because the fruit was not ready, but the market is really nice now.” Prices for a carton of large-sized fruit are around 15 or 16 Euro, and smaller sizes are about a Euro cheaper than that.
“There's not a lot of fruit on the market and there's good demand, so things are good,” said Oron. “For sure prices won't stay as they are. The season is always good in the beginning and then demand slows down, but we're hoping for a better situation than that of last year.” Though Israeli fruit is of a higher quality, lower-priced fruit later in the month will displace it in Europe. But, for now, Israeli fruit is the only fruit available.
“Volumes are less than what they were last year because prices in past years were low,” said Oron. “We're coming into better balance with less availability. It's not just Israel, either, because other countries are planting less grapefruit.
Sweeties for export
Shipments of Sweetie grapefruit are also beginning. This variety is also sent to Europe, but the sweety is most popular in Japan.
