The Middle Eastern market is overloaded with late mandarins at the moment with prices falling from $10-$12 FOB to $8-$9 FOB for a 10kg carton. According to a South African exporter this is due to increased volumes being shipped there and not due to the quality.
"The quality of the South African late mandarins is very good but there is a certain selling pace in the Middle Eastern market which does not change, there are just bigger volumes," he explained.
Up until now the production has been relatively low and all the class I mandarins have gone to the EU as they paid the highest price, normally the Middle East would only get class II fruit, but now the production has increased and for the first time this year big volumes of class I have gone there, which just shows the increase in the volumes produced.
There is in general more being shipped to the Dollar markets such as the Middle and Far East and especially to Russia.
"Since the ban on European fruit to Russia there has been a big change in the dynamics of the Middle East, now that France, Italy and Spain can't go to Russia any more they are now going to the Middle East," said the exporter. "There is a big overflow of Northern Hemisphere fruit into the Middle East which conflicts with Southern Hemisphere supply, which was never there before. It all comes down to price these days."
"The US market is weak at the moment for citrus and indeed most other fruit," according to the exporter. "It is a difficult year, although China has been good for most South African exports, except apples."
In the Middle East late mandarins have a big appeal, they have great colour and are easy to peel, they also have great shelf-life and good sugar levels.
"It is a product which will just keep increasing year after year, it looks great and travels well, there is just nothing to compare with it," concludes the exporter.
