The first consignment of new season summer citrus from South Africa arrived in the port of Philadelphia last week. The 1,340-tonne shipment, made up of clementines and Navels, was one of three scheduled containerised deliveries, the other two being made up exclusively of clementines.

“It makes sense for us to ship our early season citrus, which tend to be smaller quantities, in containers because of the more frequent sailings from Cape Town,” said Piet Smit, managing director of the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum which represents the 300 growers who export to the US.

The first conventional reefer vessel of the season started loading in Cape Town on 11 June and is due to arrive in Philadelphia on 7 July. The next bulk reefer will arrive two weeks later with 3,500 pallets of citrus on board.

While final estimates are not yet available, Mr Smit said he expects shipments to the US will be lower than the original forecast of 45,000 tonnes. This is due to a late start to the season in South Africa and exceptionally high demand for South African shipments from other global markets, he said.

“Europe and the UK, with the help of their strong currencies, are competing very strongly for the same fruit that is available to the US. This, combined with the late crop, has resulted in a significant drop in the volume of clementines we are expecting to ship to the US this year, “he said. “Overall shipments are now projected to be 1.8m 5lb cartons compared to the pre-season estimate of 2.8m cartons.”

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