Oranges
Navel Oranges
Fruit will be from the district 1 region (Fresno/Delano/Terra Bella/Bakersfield) of California for the primary shipping locations. Imports from South Africa and South America are scheduled to arrive to the U.S. in early July. There are limited supplies on navels as they are expected to wrap up in the middle/end of May, with larger growers hopeful of extending into the second week of June. The varieties currently are Late Lanes, Barnfields, and Powells. These will carry us through the end of the navel season. Quality is excellent with brix in the 12-14 range. We will see a slight green tinge on the ends of the oranges as late varieties are just getting underway; this will clean up in the coming weeks. Peak sizing will be 72/56/88s, in that order with minimal 113/138s around. We will not see any opportunity to promote for the remainder of the California season on navels as the demand far exceeds the supply, coupled in with the navel season ending roughly 3 to 4 weeks earlier with all growers (crop is down roughly 14% year over year). Market will be on a steady increase until the season wraps.
Valencias Oranges
Fruit will be from the district 1 region (Fresno/Delano/Terra Bella/Bakersfield) of California for the primary shipping locations. There are no callouts on variety for Valencia oranges as Valencia is the variety. Valencias started 2 weeks ago with a few growers with most beginning harvest this week. Valencia oranges will go from May through the end of September. Typically, the Valencia season carries until new crop Navels begin, but this will be a challenge this year as shipping will start early to counteract the early end of the navel season. Quality is excellent with brix at an average of 12. The outer appearance is good and clean, but we will see a rougher, more pebbled skin on a Valencia compared to the smooth skin on a navel. Peak sizing of 88/72/113s, in that order. One callout is that the crop is down slightly from last year from the early crop estimates. Market will stay firm due to the high navel market.
Lemons
Lemons have fully transitioned from district 1 region (Fresno to Bakersfield) into the district 2 region (Filmore/Oxnard/Santa Paula). District 2 fruit began harvest a couple of weeks ago which will go through July. Peak sizing is 140/115/165 counts, in that order, with 60% fancy and 40% choice. District 1 fruit tends to be a lot cleaner in outer appearance when compared to the district 2 fruit. The reason for this is that the district 2 fruit is grown in the coastal region which can be impacted by winds. These winds ultimately scar the fruit, which will end up yielding more choice fruit. It is time to promote on lemons!! Volume is in abundant with supplies far exceeding demand allowing for aggressive promotions on certain sizing. With district 1 being at the tail end of the deal, the sizing on lemons is large. Deals will be in the 75- and 95-count sizing, with 140 count and smaller being tighter on supplies.
Grapefruit
Fruit will be out of the district 1 region (Bakersfield/Exeter) of California for the shipping locations. Grapefruit is expected to be tight all season (April through June) in California in the district 1 region with demand exceeding supplies. This is attributed to the Texas freeze we saw in February 2021 which greatly shortened the Texas grapefruit season. This shortage created more pressure on Florida to support a greater market share of the east and central parts of the United States. The weather impact shortened the Florida and Texas crops, which officially brought both regions to an end at the beginning of April, leaving California as the sole supplier. Quality on district 1 fruit is excellent with a 90% fancy/10% choice spilt. The brix range is 12 to 14. Interior is seeing a vibrant bright pink/red with the exterior seeing that touch of blush that consumers love. Despite the tight market on bigger sizes of 27 to 48 counts, there is opportunity to promote with the smaller sizes of 56 and 64 counts.
Mandarins/Tangerines
California mandarin crop will be wrapped up by middle of May, due to the crop being down roughly 25% year over year. The same goes for Moroccan fruit. We saw the last arrivals into the Northeastern ports April 29th, with shipping ending middle of May. Both growing regions are in the W. Murcott variety which is the cleanest and most flavorful variety. At the end of the season for these regions is when we will see the market and the mandarin deal get a little crazy. Middle of May we will transition into a Peruvian Primasole variety (first arrivals this week), which is very undesirable by retailers and consumers. The Primasole variety has a more yellow tint to the fruit and overall flavor and eating quality are poor. Although the fruit is not the best, it will serve its purpose this year which is to bridge the gap between the W. Murcott and the Clemenule variety out of Northern Chile. We expect this to be a small sizing crop this year out of Northern Chile due to the lack of water supply they are facing, with peaks being in the 32 to 40 sizes.