This season's Israeli grapefruit crop is expected to top out at around 90,000 tonnes, according to information gathered from the country's leading grower-exporters, from a total citrus crop of some 560,000 tonnes.
Hanan Oren, citrus product manager at Arava Growers, told Eurofruit that exports of red grapefruit from the country should come in at 60,000 tonnes, with the start of the export season set to be delayed until the second week of September while the European market is supplied with large quantities of South African fruit.
Israel's white grapefruit exports, meanwhile, should total around 5,500 tonnes, according to Rami Hessel of Mehadrin Tnuport Export – the majority of which will be drawn from his company.
Indeed, of the country's total grapefruit exports, Mehadrin is expected to export around 50 per cent, Galilee Exports close to 15 per cent, with Arava, Kedem Hadarim, Niva and Agrexco supplying about 4 per cent of the total each.
While Hessel said that Mehadrin would be targeting markets such as the UK, France, Italy and Russia, Oded Jacobson of Galilee Exports said that his company was looking for 'non-conventional outlets in the Far East and in Canada, to keep out of the European 'pond' as much as possible'.
