Key sources in Japan’s citrus trade are hopeful that Florida grapefruit imports can continue without significant disruption this season in spite of the damage caused to the state’s citrus crop from a string of subzero temperatures.
Florida growers have endured two pronounced spells of freezing weather this month, the first one affecting the northern and central areas of the state on 6-7 January and the second one sweeping the peninsula on 10-12 January. Temperatures in some citrus-growing areas plummeted to -2-3oC for three to four hours.
Damage assessments are still under way among state authorities, but industry sources are hopeful that the grapefruit exports to Japan will emerge relatively unscathed.
“It’s still too early to tell the total extent of the freeze damage on Florida grapefruit yet. We will know more in a few weeks,” said Hisao Takeda of Yamano & Associates, which represents the Florida Department of Citrus in Japan.
“Fortunately, the temperatures in the Indian River region did not dip as low as the rest of the state and hopefully our fresh export fruit will be okay. However, the interior temperatures were much colder and there was damage that may affect the overall orange juice and grapefruit juice supply as well as the fresh fruit. As a result of this, we anticipate a reduction in the overall crop.”
Aki Yamada of major Japanese import company Goldspan said initial reports from Florida indicated sporadic cases of frozen fruit or leaves, but no apparent damage to trees.
“Our plans for importing Florida grapefruit remain unchanged but shippers have held shipments in a few cases just to make sure no damaged fruit gets mixed into the export cartons,” he told Fruitnet.com. “We don’t expect any serious impact for Florida grapefruit marketing plans this season, although the season could finish earlier than normal. The freeze damage on soft citrus is more serious than grapefruit.”
Florida grapefruit shipments to Japan in the season to date are currently tracking slightly behind the corresponding period last year, with 1.82m cartons shipped as of Week 2, 94 per cent of last season’s levels.
Japanese retail sales of fresh produce have been weak, according to Mr Takeda, and grapefruit is no exception. Weekly movement of grapefruit in Japan has been running at rates of 150-200,000 cartons, leaving a current inventory level of 300,000 cartons.
Nevertheless, Mr Takeda expects sales to pick up with the arrival of a charter vessel – the Sunbelt Spirit – in mid-February. Sunbelt Spirit is loading in Port Canaveral today (19 January) with an estimated 380,000 cartons of grapefruit set to sail on this vessel.
“This shipment marks the beginning of the peak season for Florida grapefruit imports into Japan and there is another charter shipment prescheduled this season,” Mr Takeda noted.
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