Spain: Complicated end to the South African season for Valencia orange

"Even though everyone had prepared for a total disaster, the lemons did quite well, but the Valencias' precipitous decline was not expected. Everyone expected an excellent orange campaign and it has been the opposite, especially in the last third," explains the local buyer for a European importer, who asks not to be named. Four months ago, everything seemed very simple: export prices for oranges had to match or exceed a minimum price set based on the historically high price of orange juice (caused by huanglongbing in Brazilian orange groves) or else producers would prefer to send their oranges to a local juice company. "In addition, a lot has happened this year in terms of production: frost, rain, floods, hail, wrinkles... Many variables have made things difficult," he adds. "Buyers were expecting less volume, even an empty market. All signs pointed to a very early end to South African Valencias," and several downgrades to the estimate for Valencian exports reinforced this ...