“At this moment the market is saturated and demand has been somewhat quiet,” said Paul Ross of Southern Sun, indicating the clementines have come early out of Chile this year. “They’re almost near finishing - probably two or three weeks more and they’ll be done, which is quite a bit earlier than normal,” he said. The early offering was available within very condensed windows.
“The whole month of July Peru is going to have very high production as well. Uruguay is shipping the heaviest volumes of the season in the next two to three weeks. All the areas are early with their Murcotts as well,” noted Ross. The normal availability of Murcotts is the third week of August, however Ross says the season is about 10 days early.
Volume changes
Volume for Chilean fruit could change soon, which could cause gaps in availability.
“What I’ve seen in terms of Chilean fruit next weeks is a very big arrival week and after that the volumes are down significantly,” said Ross. “There may be a gap between the Chilean clementines and the Chilean Murcotts, and even though many growers are reporting the crop to be about 10 days early, they won’t be here in time.” The gap could occur in late July or early August.
“Chilean murcotts will probably start arriving here by August 15; the normal date is August 25. The time between August 1 and 15 could be an empty market here. It depends on Peru and what they have and when they finish.”
Scarcity of lemons and navels
While the quality of lemons and navels has been very good, quantities of both commodities have been scarce.
“Even though there is a slight increase on lemons exported into the U.S., the industry is facing a shortage of lemons,” said Rennan Victor. “For sure there has been more retail presence and special programs were set during the season, and today there isn’t much available to be sold in the spot market. On the other hand, oranges are delayed and, year to date, only 30 percent of the volume exported last season has been shipped to the U.S.”
Ross and Victor traveled to Chile about a month ago, and they both said quality was beautiful for navels and lemons. “The fruit is some of the best it’s been,” said Ross. “Chile had more rain this year and all the citrus commodities sized up beautifully.”
