Sun Valley Biofruit has unveiled a new packhouse to handle its organic citrus grown in the eastern Cape in South Africa. Dave Barker of UK partner Be Organic returned from visiting the new facility last week. He said: “Citrus fruit is now in full production and a recent cold front has given it some superb natural colour.”
The packhouse is a dedicated organic facility and is capable of packing 1.2 million cases in a season from its five farms backed up with cold-storage capacity for 500 pallets at a time. Barker said: “Demand is strong across Europe for new season, organic, citrus and even with the new facility we are struggling to keep pace with demand. First clementines are due to arrive for sale in the UK in the first week in June and the first commercial shipment of lemons and Washington Navel will arrive for sale two weeks later. The lemon crop will be heaviest on second and third flowering so we should maintain presence on the market until the end of September and dovetail nicely into new season northern hemisphere crops.”
Barker reports strong demand for organic citrus in the UK and elsewhere in Be Organic’s continental European markets of France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. He said: “In general, we are not feeling any downturn in demand for our organic products. Organic lemons are in shortage in Europe. Sales are very strong in Germany, and in the UK, organic lemons are a big seller.”
Uptake for soft citrus has also been very encouraging, right from the first shipment of satsumas in April when the relatively small volume available was snapped up by wholesale and box-scheme suppliers as well as supermarket customers.
