All major destinations except Russia have received more South African citrus in the season to date, but the largest increase has come from its cornerstone market of Europe. 

The European Union has received 2.5 million more cartons of citrus in the season to date compared to the same time last year, with one fifth of the total crop now packed and shipped.

In a weekly newsletter, Citrus Association of Southern Africa (CGA) CEO Justin Chadwick said 9.8 million cartons had been sent to the market.

He said modest increases had also been recorded for other destinations including the Middle East (+9%; 4.8 million), North America (+71%; 1.2 million), Asia (+3%; 3.7 million) and Africa (25%; 500,000).

"Russia is the only market with less shipped to date – 1.8 million cartons in 2016 vs. 2.3 m in 2015," Chadwick said.

He said Satsuma packing and shipping was complete with a final volume of 1.87 million cartons, up 4% on the estimate.

The clementine crop was almost completely packed at 96%, or 2.63 million cartons, while mandarins were now starting to dominate the soft citrus sector with 1.41 million cartons packed to date, or 20% of the estimate.

The grapefruit and lemon seasons have progressed by about two fifths of the expected total.

Meanwhile more than three million cartons of Navel oranges have been packed but are yet to be shipped, and this volume still only makes up just over a third of the total Navel crop.

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