However, not everything was golden in South African citrus. “The consumption of grapefruit and tangerines was quite negatively affected by the warm weather this summer. Now that schools have started again, the market is recovering, but July and August were tough months for these products. South African growers who didn’t grow a mix of products, could be headed for a particularly difficult year.”
“The orange market has been very stable for both regular and pressing oranges up till now. Traditionally we see a bit more supply as we head towards 15 October, which is necessary to serve programmes after the duty deadline. We’ll now have to wait and see how the market will respond to these additional volumes,” Eddy continues. “It’s positive that people in South Africa have Black Spot under control, considering the number of discoveries. However, a number of FCM discoveries were made, but South Africa responded pro-actively to this with cold treatments. This shows that it’s been good and necessary that people went down this road.”
Organic citrus isn’t part of Exsa’s assortment yet. “Although the market for organic citrus is also growing in a stable manner, it requires a lot from growers, and combined with the lower yield it should come with a higher cost price to compensate for the efforts of the growers. We’ve therefore chosen ‘chem free’ citrus, which means no wax is added post-harvest, to lemons in particular, because skins of these are often used. At the same time, it’s an ideal route for us to meet MRL requirements of discount formulas,” Eddy concludes.
