California citrus

The new US citrus season is looking positive, with initial reports from the trade indicating more favourable fruit sizing both on California navels and Florida grapefruit.

While the USDA has forecast a 16 per cent jump in California navel volumes to 80m cartons, key industry figures expect a more moderate increase in output, but most agree the crop is shaping up nicely.

“Last year the crop was small but this year we’re back to more normal production and the size structure is nice and balanced,” Kevin Fiori, Sunkist’s VP of sales and marketing, told Fruitnet.com.

“We’re peaking on `count` 72s followed by 56s and there are plenty of 88s. It should be a good year for marketing.”

Another factor that should spur sales is the good internal quality of the fruit, according to Mr Fiori. “Brix levels are high – they’re already up at 9° or 10° and we’re just waiting on colour, but 90 per cent of it is about taste as that's what keeps the consumer coming back for more, so we're pretty excited,' he said.

Paramount Citrus expects to begin packing its first navels for domestic markets by the last week of October, and for export markets by mid-November, according to director of export sales Dan Kass.

“Brix levels are quite high for this time of year for the industry as a whole, so the only thing holding us back on export is colour,” he said.

Paramount is projecting as much as a 15 per cent increase in production this year.

“The main crop with Washington navels looks to be very similar to 2008/09 but late varieties are way up from last year,” Mr Kass revealed.

Meanwhile, the Florida grapefruit crop is bearing smaller fruit this year with good size and shape, according to DNE’s executive VP Bob Egan.

“We’re peaking on `count` 40s, and sizing is favourable for Japan,” he told Fruitnet.com. “We’re looking forward to a good season.”

The first shipments to Japan are now on the water and scheduled to arrive in early November. Grapefruit stocks in Japan, which stood at around 1m cartons at the start of October, should clear to make way for a smooth transition to new season Florida fruit, Mr Egan noted.

The Florida grapefruit industry shipped around 6m cartons to Japan last season. 'Japan was a good market for DNE in 2008/09,' said Mr Egan. 'They took everything we had.'

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