A hot and dry summer in Spain is likely to bring the upcoming citrus season forward a few days and lead to a higher proportion of smaller-sized fruit, according to a Belgium-based importer.

"It’s not a huge crop but there’s enough fruit, however there will be a lot of small sizes because of the drought," said Central Fruit manager William Willems.

He said Spain experienced high temperatures and little rain during the summer, and for that reason the country had a normal crop but with quite a lot of small-sized fruit.

"Also because of the weather the Brix levels are higher than they are in normal years, and that will give us fruit maybe a week more in advance."

He said the season typically got underway for the early easy peeler varieties in the second half of September, with oranges kicking off toward the end of October.

Limited South African Valencia supplies

The representative added that the European market continued to faced citrus shortages, most notably of Valencia oranges due to lower South African supplies.

"It’s still a market where there is not a lot of extra volumes in stock available," he said.

"There was a little gap in between Spain and overseas earlier in the year, but also the production overseas is quite limited this season. There are a lot of big sizes, especially in the Valencia types, and big sizes means less fruit mostly."

"The biggest problem is in the Valencia types, so Midknight, Delta seedless. For Navel oranges volumes are more of less normal. There's just enough. For soft citrus the situation is normal as well."

Data from the  Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa shows shipments so far this season are down 2 million boxes year-on-year at 20.8 million. Volumes of Navels and soft citrus, however, are currently higher than 2015 levels.

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