The citrus market in the UK is surprisingly buoyant at the moment, according to Maja Jerkovic from Jacana Produce. "Egyptian Navels are finished and the Valencias are coming in. Quality is very good this year, a big difference to last year when there were a lot of issues. The Egyptian oranges last year did not last more than 3-4 days, there was a lot of waste and a lot of money was lost."
Prices are also better than last year when they were around the £2-3 mark. Maja said this could be due to less from Spain and also the fact that Egypt sends a lot to Russia.
Sizes 40-56 seem to be common right now, and there is more demand for those than for bigger sizes.
"The Egyptian season should run until the beginning of May. There are also some Star Ruby grapefruit on the market just now from Egypt," said Maja.
Jacana's customers, are mainly caterers and wholesalers with some retailers, "Customers who buy for juicing seem to prefer sizes 88-90-100 as they fit in the machines, while for presentation sizes 48-56 are more popular as they look better
and the sizes 72-80 is what retailers want."
