Marketing opportunities for Mexican grapefruit suppliers are expected to be limited in North America this season, while conditions in Europe look solid, according to the country’s leading exporter ProAgro.
The grower-shipper is anticipating a bumper crop of grapefruit for 2010, with plans to export some 400,000 cartons – well up on last season, which was one of “low volume and high prices”.
“We’ve had plenty of rain, which always helps, and are expecting a high quality crop with a good spread of sizes – much better than last year when sizes were on the small side,” CEO Juan Pablo Palazuelos, told Fruitnet.com.
But with some US importers cutting back their programmes from Central America following reported quality issues, the opportunities for Mexican shippers in the US and Canada will be limited.
“Our programmes are down from Mexico and Honduras, mostly because of shippers not being able to provide fruit with a US or Canada quality requirement,” Guy Milette of Montreal-based Courchesne Larose told Fruitnet.com.
Seald Sweet also said it has no plans to import any grapefruit into the US this season. “We are importing lemons and all of our producers have met our specifications for several years now,” explained senior vice-president David Mixon.
Harvesting in Mexico is due to get underway at the beginning of August. The first consignments are set to arrive in Europe during the first week of September.
Shipments to the US and Japan, meanwhile, will begin slightly later, towards the end of August.
