Citrus fruit has long been a bright, popular addition to the fruit bowl, but with convenience now seen as the ultimate driver for consumers, is the fact you have to take time to peel the fruit seeing it fall from favour?
Amos Orr, UK general manager with Agrexco, says: “It is common knowledge that the demand for oranges is on the decrease. How to encourage consumers to actually peel an orange is a difficult one.”
Perhaps the answer is in easy peeling fruit, he suggests, although while the fruit may be easier to peel, there is no escaping the fact consumers will still have to peel it.
Israel is a strong supplier of citrus to the UK but is seeing a general shortage across all fruit this season, says Rob Cullum, product manager with Agrexco. “If we compare sales at this time of year to the same period last year, they are definitely up.
“But we know that overall, the total figures for citrus will be down as this crop, across the board, will be smaller than last winter.”
This view is backed up by Dov Warmen, managing director of MTEX UK, custodians of the Jaffa brand in the UK. “With Shamouti, the crop this year is around 15 per cent lower than last year.”
However it is not all negative, since while the fruit is short, sizes are large. However, the shortages of Shamouti will probably lead to an early start to the Valencia season, says Cullum.
Both the UK and Scandanavia are the main markets for Israeli Shamouti, he says, and demand so far has been very good. Warmen agrees the market is strong, and points to the fact that Israel is increasing its production to meet the growing demand.
“We’re expanding production by around 50 hectares a year. At the same time we’re also replacing old trees with new. Some of the trees are over 50 years old.”
Cullum says the Israeli industry is keeping an eye on the market demands: “The UK in particular is an important market for us. We have worked hard with our growers and customers to establish exactly what is wanted, fruit with a higher sugar level, oozing with juice and with a great taste.
“A great example is our white grapefruit. We are supplying it direct from the trees, as opposed to from storage, thereby allowing the natural sugars to develop.”
However, white grapefruit is more of a problem this year, Warmen points out. “We are short on white grapefruit. The problem is that we didn’t harvest the fruit in time, it was left on the trees for much longer and is much larger.”
This coupled with the fact volumes are lower this season could spell difficulties: “The UK market prefers smaller fruit, so we can see a problem developing there. The normal season runs from October to May, but I think with white we’ll be finishing at the end of April.”
Fortunately, there are no such problems with red grapefruit, and Warmen is confident MTEX will be able to fulfil its programmes on red.
Cullum says the problem with the white fruit was also exacerbated by strong demand at the start of the season.
Easy peelers have also been hit by the shortage in volume, the sector reports, although that appears to have paid off according to Cullum. “Suntina did go extremely well. It was short and quick, but it meant that the fruit was sold and obviously eaten at its prime period in December, as opposed to prolonging the season through to January and February.”
Minneola also did well, but Warmen says the shortfall was marked: “It was down by around 50 per cent on last year, and we just can’t explain why we experienced such a fall. It’s proving very popular with UK consumers, but we just didn’t have sufficient volumes this year.”
Cullum says Or and Mor are looking good: “The fruit is now coming into the UK. Volumes will be smaller than last year, as it is an off-year, but there is a high demand for the varieties.”
The fall in Or was unexpected, however, says Warmen. “The quantity has been lower than we expected it to be, by around 20 per cent, but all programmes will be fulfilled.” He says the UK market will be given preference over other markets to ensure sufficient volumes get through.
A new development for MTEX this year has been the first sendings of Navel Late fruit. Warmen says: “This year is the first time we’ll be doing Navel Late from Israel, with fruit being sent in around three weeks time. The quantities are still very small, but the fruit is looking good and the sizes are large.”
However, while the crops are looking good, volume issues aside, the industry continues to face the problems of market deflation and rising costs.
Orr says: “The major issues for this sector, as with any sector in fresh produce, are the higher costs of transport and packing materials.
“We need to give our growers a sufficient income and the onus is on us as the market cannot and does not always give the right return: not an easy situation.”
He says the increase in costs could mean this season will be a difficult one. “We know that it is almost impossible to increase prices, but unless customers make allowances for this in the pricing, we are aware that even if last year’s prices are maintained it might not be enough.”
In the meantime, Agrexco is working hard to cut costs, he says: “As exporters, we have a duty to be as efficient as possible. We need to compete on quality, but we need to provide our products at reasonable costs, which is extremely difficult in today’s climate.
“Our two new vessels have reduced the shipping time considerably. We need to work on direct shipment to customers - we must allocate product in Israel to the end user and it must then be moved untouched with the customer being the first to see the product.”
Another new development for Agrexco has been a widening of its lemon activities, says Cullum. “We have started marketing lemons to different markets and regard this as having great potential. Our traditional markets in the Far East recognise that the lemons we export are superior - we have varieties that not only are virtually seedless they also have a massive juice content and this has been picked up by some of our customers in Europe.
“They know that consumers would be willing to pay slightly more for a lemon with a few seeds and a greater juice content in preference to one packed with seeds - why should the consumer settle for less? As a result of this we are happy to say that our customers are looking to programme volumes.”
MTEX UK has also been active on the marketing front, and, for the first time in 20 years, has put its Jaffa brand back on the television. The campaign, aimed at health-conscious women aged 24 to 44-years-old, ran from January to the end of February on Channel 4, E4 and ITV2.
The ad, developed by McCann Erickson, featured Adam and Eve being tempted by a Jaffa orange in the Garden of Eden.
Warmen says he is keen to see the results from the campaign.“Prior to the adverts going on air, we did some market research to get public opinion about the Jaffa brand. When the ads have finished we’ll repeat the research to see what the influence has been and then we’ll decide on how to continue the advertising campaign.”
He says the reaction so far has been excellent, but he is waiting for the facts: “The reaction from colleagues has been very interesting. People seem to like the ad, they like the idea. It’s too early to tell the impact, but we’ll know more after the research. I’m very happy with it, but I’m perhaps not objective enough!”
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