An early start to the Israeli grapefruit season will bring some much-needed relief to the category in the UK, after a period of extreme shortage.
Near perfect growing conditions in early production areas have brought the crop forward, and MTEX UK has responded to customer demand to ship earlier and bridge a gap created by a low production season in South Africa and a slow start to the Mexican grapefruit campaign.
MTEX UK will ship 80-90 per cent of the Jaffa grapefruit to leave Israel in the next four weeks and thanks to new orchard acquisitions in the north of the country, expects to see a 15-20 per cent increase in production of the citrus fruit during the season.
The company’s general manager in the UK, Marius du Plessis, said: “Arrivals from Mexico and South Africa have been limited in recent weeks and while demand has been steady, it has been an awkward sales period for all handlers. Prices have remained stable, however, and we have reacted to the demand from our customers to support them over the next four weeks with a greater volume of Jaffa grapefruit than normal.
“The UK is a very important market for Mehadrin in general, and our biggest export destination for grapefruit,” du Plessis added. “The season will start with arrivals of white Marsh, and Sunrise will follow soon. I would expect the next four weeks to be exceptional - after that, indications are that the supply picture will return to a more normal situation.”
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