The harvest is at its peak with producers in the main growing area of Valencia now well into Navelina orange picking and Clemenules easy-peel too. Salustiana has just begun picking as has mandarin hybrid Clemenvilla.

'We said in September there would be less fruit this year and that is exactly what is happening,' said Juan Salvador Torres of Valencia growers' association Ava-Asaja. 'As we predicted, volumes are even lighter than forecast by the Valencia regional executive at the time. The season is also going very quickly with good prices that have shown a strong recovery. We had a few problems with the Marisol crop in that we had to sell it all in Europe as it came on stream before the US ban was lifted but that is all behind us now.' The season is the antithesis of 2001-02, said Torres with much more fluidity in the marketplace and growers demanding more at the farm-gate in terms of price because of lower volumes this autumn.

'The season is likely to come to an early close as varieties are barely overlapping,' warns Torres. 'As soon as we come to the end of one variety, we start the next. For example, we usually have supplies of Navelina until mid-February but I doubt very much Navelina will go beyond mid-January next year.' From the importers' point of view, Paul Olins of Poupart is pleased with the season so far and how supplies have dovetailed with the end of the southern hemisphere season. 'Everything is rolling along fine,' said Olins. 'We are in our sixth week of easy-peel supplies from Spain and there is nothing adverse about the season.' In terms of packaging Poupart is seeing increasing demand from its customers for giro-plus R packs which it is able to meet.

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