Citrus from Cyprus has just started its new season with arrivals of lemons and grapefruit into the UK marketplace.
Ioannis Shekeris, commercial counsellor at the Cyprus High Commission Trade Centre forecasts volumes will be even higher this season than last. "The 2003-04 season was fantastic for Cypriot fruit growers with over 73,000 tonnes of fruit exported," said Shekeris. "We anticipate that this season's citrus fruit crop could reach a volume of 75,000t."
Production conditions have favoured the crop. The summer has been long and dry in general, but kicked off with reservoir levels high to overflowing so crops have been well irrigated. Some cloudy spells and rainfall have also helped to boost colour more recently although day-time temperatures are still at a balmy 30°C.
Grapefruit stands to benefit significantly from the drastically reduced Florida crop as Cyprus primarily produces pigmented varieties such as Ruby Red. The start of the harvest of white grapefruit is imminent.
The UK is a major export market for Cyprus and its share is typically 27-28 per cent, but other markets such as Italy are also important and the Czech Republic and Croatia are gaining in importance. Hong Kong is also proving a good market for early sendings of Cyprus lemons and exports are also underway to Russia.
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