South Africa's Valencia orange volumes were understandably lower this year given the hot, dry 2015-16 summer, but not all markets around the world were short on the country's fruit. 

CGA CEO Justin Chadwick

In a weekly newsletter, the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said the variety focus group's original estimate was 12% lower than in 2015 at 46.4 million cartons, but the final figure was lower still. 

"The season started normally through to week 34; and then packing fell off the bus," said CGA CEO Justin Chadwick.

"From then on weekly packing was way below the previous year, stopping some five weeks before previous years.

"As a result final packed for export figure was 41.6 million cartons – a massive 21% less than 2015 and 10% under estimate."

Chadwick said all but one market experienced less volume as a result.

"The one region that bucked the trend was South East Asia where volumes increased from 6.6 m (14%) to 6.8 million cartons (17%)," he said.

The largest region Europe dropped by just 4% to 15.5 million cartons, while the second-largest region the Middle East was down 21% at 8.7 million cartons. 

North America's imports fell by 31% down to 1.1 million, the U.K. bought 31% less at 2.2 million, Russia's imports were 34% lower at 2.7 million, while Africa's and the rest of Asia's imports dropped by whopping rates of 40% and 43% respectively. 

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