Payment in the field for Valencia Late is ranging from ?0.20-0.35 a kilo according to size with many growers finding they have a lot of small fruit this year. 'No one really knows why [fruit sizes are small],' said Juan Salvador Torres of producers association Ava-Asaja in Valencia. 'Some trees have a lot of fruit and sizes are small, others have fewer, larger fruits. Last year the summer was very dry and some trees had more and others less irrigation, but the situation is not generalised throughout the region, or even within the same plantation. It is a real mixed bag and for no reason in particular.' Torres does report however, that quality is good with high juice content and sugar levels. Harvesting is past the mid-way point in the season for the last variety in the Spanish citrus portfolio. Volumes are more or less in line with last season, which was an average volume year following the bumper crop of 2000.

Meanwhile, the citrus sector in the Valencia region is still concerned with regard to the US ban on its clementine exports. Proposed changes to plant health protocols have been negotiated between the US and Spanish authorities. But a timetable is still lacking leaving growers in a position of uncertainty as the 2002-03 export crop starts to form on the trees.

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