Florida grapefruit shipments to the UK have nudged ahead on last year this season, but overall sendings are expected to be lower than last year, US sources have confirmed.
Mike Yetter from the Florida Department of Citrus is still confident that this season will be a good one. He told FPJ: “We had adequate rainfall throughout the early development of the crop last summer, which helped juice content. In November, we had unseasonably cool weather in Florida, which helped give the fruit color and improve brix levels. As a result, we have ended up with a good-quality piece of fruit this year.
“From a marketing standpoint, we are seeing global produce consumption declining as a result of the economic crisis. This was somewhat anticipated based on feedback from the trade.
“Fortunately, we have not seen dramatic drops in fresh grapefruit consumption in Europe and the UK. As a matter of fact, we have seen a slight increase - up two per cent - in fresh grapefruit shipments to Europe through to the end of the year [week ending December 28, 2008]. I would expect, however, to finish the season down slightly, given that the crop is smaller this year.”
The US department of agriculture released its latest citrus
forecast on January 12, which revised the total orange production from the original projection of 165 million boxes to 162m boxes. This is lower than last year’s crop of 170.2m boxes.
The figures were altered because earlier fruit size projections were not attained.
The grapefruit crop was unchanged from the original projection of 23m boxes, down from last year’s crop of 26.6m boxes.
Yetter said: “It is difficult to say how much we will ship to the UK this season. Given that the crop is 13.5 per cent smaller than last season, I would expect to see some decline in shipments this year. Last year, we shipped more than 500,000 cartons to the UK. An estimate for this season would be in the 500,000 carton range.”
More than 100,000 grapefruit cartons were sent to the UK by the end of 2008, ahead of the peak of the season from January to April.
Yetter said: “Despite the global economic crisis, I believe the season will end up being a fairly decent one for both our growers and the UK trade. Again, we are seeing good quality in our fruit. Supply and demand appear to be in balance, currency exchange rates are still favorable for our export business and, despite escalating production costs we are seeing some relief in energy prices. All in all, I anticipate a good season.”
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