In General

The situation at Saudi Arabia’s airports remains serious following missile and drone attacks, resulting in flight cancellations and ongoing disruptions. With the South African cherry season underway, disruption to available flights or connecting flights could affect delivery,  timing, and marketability. This will also impact the start of the South African stone fruit season, particularly the airfreight of nectarines, peaches, and apricots.

Market trends continue to show an increase in prices for Valencia and Cambria oranges, while other citrus commodities, such as lemons and mandarins, remain under pressure. However, Nadorcott mandarins are starting to pick up, due to better quality and taste compared to other mandarin varieties.

Airfreighted South African stone fruit, including peaches, nectarines and apricots, will face strong competition from locally available stone fruit at lower prices. Peaches, nectarines and plums from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey remain available at competitive price levels, making it challenging for South African fruit arriving by airfreight at higher prices to compete in the market.

• Citrus
• Pome
• Grape, Stone & Kiwi Fruit
• India & Bangladesh
• PPECB Statistics

Lemons

The lemon market remained under significant pressure, with sales movement extremely slow.

Oranges

South African Late Navels and Valencia oranges are available and continued to achieve good price levels, supported by temporary supply shortages caused by vessel delays.

Grapes           

Egyptian grape volumes remained limited, while demand continued at relatively low levels. Italian grapes remained available and continued to sell at good price levels.

Stone Fruit

Plums
Spanish plums remained available in the market, while demand continued to be weak.

Kiwi
The market continues to have high volumes of kiwi fruit from Iran, maintaining pressure on the market.

Cherries

The market is now being supplied with new-season cherries from South Africa. Lebanese cherries are also available in the market; however, their quality is not good.

The first official estimate for the South African cherry crop is expected in two weeks, with preliminary indications pointing to a 10–15% decrease compared to last season. Although initial flowering was very promising, heatwaves followed by cold and wet weather negatively affected fruit set. On a positive note, fruit sizing is reported to be better than last season , with 26mm sizing anticipated to be more readily available.

India

No report. 

Bangladesh

No report.