Citrus

Russia Temporarily Suspends the Import of Chinese Citrus

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The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has decided to temporarily ban the import of citrus from China after intercepting harmful organisms in shipments of these fruits. After issuing a warning to China on December 13, 2019, the Rosselkhoznadzor made the measure effective on January 6.

It is worth recalling that in August last year, Russia suspended the import of many stone fruits from China, such as plums, nectarines, apricots, peaches and cherries, as well as of apples and pears, as a result of the regular finding of harmful organisms, such as the Oriental fruit fly, during inspections.

After the implementation of the ban, China invited Russia to audit the agricultural inspection and quarantine control systems. However, according to reports, Russia was not satisfied with the results of the audit.

The announcement issued on the official Rosselkhoznadzor website states that Russia would temporarily restrict citrus imports from China until this country establishes effective measures to comply with Russian standards regarding the safety of imported food.

www.freshplaza.com

Turkish Citrus Exports to Russia are Led by Mandarins

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During the first eleven months of 2019, Turkey exported 393,548 MT of citrus fruits worth 214.7 million dollars to Russia, according to data of the Eastern Black Sea Exporters Union (DKIB) for the period between January and November.

Mandarin was the most exported citrus with 230,352 MT worth 118 million dollars.

Turkish lemon exports to Russia during this period amounted to 55 million dollars while orange exports totaled 23.7 million dollars.

www.freshplaza.com

South African fruit exports to Russia declining

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According to statistics of the Federal Customs Service of Russia for 2015, the import of oranges from South Africa decreased by 40% in comparison with 2014. This year, export of SA citrus into Russia will fall even further. This is happening in spite of the countries’ leaders calling for increased fruit trade between them. In the opinion of South African and Russian businesses, the main reason for the drop in SA fruits imports to Russia was the introduction, by the Russian side, of a trade barrier in the form of a special mandatory EAC transport marking from February 2015.

By itself the marking does not contain any impossible requirements. The marking (it should be in Russian) describes the name of the product (apple or orange), country of origin, producer, exporter, importer – which is something already written in shipping documents (Bill of Lading, Certificate of Origin, Phytosanitary Certificate), but in English. It is also required to specify the period of validity of the product which is nonsense for fruits: an apple can survive a full year’s storage or rot after a couple of weeks if bitten by a worm. Such a sticker can be printed by South Africans, but often with mistakes, because Russian is not a dispersed language in the country. What is worse is that the EAC sticker must be affixed on each carton, but this does not fit with the technology of fruit preparation and sending them for export adopted in South Africa. According to the existing technology of work with perishable products, as soon as they are harvested and packed they must be delivered to cold storages in ports of loading. They are brought in already mounted and slashed on pallets to ensure safety of cargo during the long sea voyage to the client. Name and address of the concrete receiver will be often made certain at the last moment before the pallets go into the vessel or container. To break the pallets, fix stickers on each carton – there are minimum seventy on a pallet – and then again slash the pallets is not possible in conditions of port cold storages. Big exporters working under programs with big Russian importers can fix stickers at pack houses. It’s costly, but technically possible. But it is not possible for medium and small farms and exporters who work on spot basis and they are forced to leave the Russian market.

www.freshplaza.com, www.fruitnews.info

Russia imports of mandarin and grapefruit on the increase

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Russian citrus imports rose by 6% last year compared to 2012. The markets for mandarin and grapefruit in particular show high growth rates, respectively 40% and 34%, reports the Russian website fruitnews.ru. Turkey and Morocco traditionally are the two main citrus suppliers, but have to surrender a part of their market share to South Africa and Egypt. A striking newcomer on the mandarin market is Georgia.

Russia imported 1.7 million tons in 2013, accounting for 1.68 billion dollars. An increase of 6% compared to the year before. The main suppliers of citrus are Turkey and Morocco, accounting for 40% of the total volume. Egypt is third, followed by South Africa and China. The first EU country on the list is Spain occupying the sixth place. Cyprus and Greece are good for respectively the eleventh and twelfth place.

Mandarins and oranges are the most popular citrus fruits amongst the Russian consumers. Last year Russia imported more than 838,000 tons, accounting for almost half of the total citrus import. The largest mandarin suppliers are Turkey and Morocco. Although the volume from Morocco decreased compared to the previous years, the volume from Turkey grew. Together both countries account for half the mandarin supply. Other major suppliers are China, Pakistan, Spain, Argentina and Abkhazia. In October 2013 Georgia was allowed to supply the Russian market and ended up twelfth on the list with 12,000 tons.

Oranges were mainly imported from Egypt and South Africa. Volumes grew to 70% of the import. In total Russia imported 500,000 tons of oranges. Other major suppliers of oranges were Turkey, Spain and Morocco.

Grapefruit import grew by 20% compared with 2012 to 147,000 tons. The largest supplier of this citrus fruit is China, followed by Turkey, South Africa and Israel. The rise in consumption is due to media attention.

In the first quarter of this year, import fell by 11% to 577,000 ton. Key suppliers are Morocco, turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, China and Spain. New comer Georgia exported 2.6 tons of mandarins to Russia.

Expressed as a percentage, the market share of the export countries is stable. Turkey is on top of the list with 24.6%, followed by Morocco (14.5%) and Egypt (14.1%). In recent years the import of mandarins increased by almost 40% from 605,000 tons in 2010 to 838,000 tons in 2013. The import of grapefruit is also on the rise, growing 34%. In 2010 109,000 tons was imported, in 2013 it rose to 147,000 tons

The orange import grew with 5% from 478,000 tons in 2011 to 504,000 tons in 2013. The volumes from Egypt and South Africa are growing at the expense of Morocco and Turkey.

www.freshplaza.com

Instability in Ukraine affects fresh produce

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The political instability in the Ukraine is having an effect on the fresh produce imports and exports to the country.The cost of fresh produce has increased by 10% in February, citrus alone rising by 20%.

The Ukrainian border with Poland is closed due to the situation and no fruit or veg imports or exports are taking place. One Polish apple exporter said that if the situation continued it would greatly affect the market, Poland exports 200,000 tonnes of apples to Ukraine every year.

Similarly imports of Greek kiwis have ground to a halt this week. A Ukrainian importer said that it was becoming more and more difficult to purchase fresh produce from abroad. “The value of our currency has dropping steadily making everything very expensive, to add to this the banks are now taking 1½ to supply foreign currency which makes payment very slow.”

Most fruit and vegetables are still available in the Ukraine, but with the change in the administration getting customs clearance is proving to be a long progress too.

www.freshplaza.com

Russia bans oranges from Egypt

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Russia has lifted ban on ten Egyptian companies exporting citrus fruits (mainly oranges) to Moscow, state’s news agency MENA reported on Friday.

The 2013/14 citrus annual report of US Department of Agriculture said Egypt has been facing the Mediterranean fruit fly, which is the main economic pest negatively affecting production and exports.

Accordingly, complaints have been raised by some importing countries such as Russia and Ukraine after detecting some shipments infected with fruit flies.

The Egyptian government is funding the “Fruit Fly Resistance Project” that aims to control the spread of this pest and administers other regulations that have been in place in order to control the quality of the exported fruit.

Despite the complaints and the Russian ban, Egypt’s orange exports registered 37 percent of the total agricultural crops in 2012/13, recording 16,000 tonnes turning out some LE41 million, the Egyptian Agricultural export council showed.

www.fruit-inform.com

Russia offers opportunities to suppliers from the fruit and vegetable sector

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Russia import more and more fruit and vegetables all the time, while their own production
decreases. In 2012, the country became the most important sales destination for Spanish fruit and vegetables, according to a report from Business Boost International.

Fruit and vegetable imports by Russia in 2012 were compared to the previous year. The tomato and cucumber import decreased slightly, but the import of peppers was 38% higher and the import of potatoes even increased almost threefold. Also, imports of lettuce, aubergine peach and grapes increased. The apple import – in which area Russia worldwide is in third place – decreased by 18 percent.


It appears from the report that in the area of fruit imports, especially Ecuador (bananas), Poland (apples), Turkey (citrus, grapes and top fruit), China (apples, citrus and top fruit), Argentina (apples, pears and citrus), Chile (grapes) that these products are very important for the country. The total consumption of fruit in the country increases for a number of reasons, one of them being the developing retail sector.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russia takes on more Valencian citrus

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Exports increased 200 per cent over past three seasons, according to reports in Spain

Citrus exports from the Valencia region of Spain to the Russian market have soared over the past three years, growing by over 200 per cet.

According to Empresa Exterior, shipments to Russia jumped by 203.5 per cent between 2009/10 and 2011/12, with volumes growing to 65,194 tonnes from 21,475 tonnes.

During the three-year period, total citrus exports from Valencia to all markets grew 12.6 per cent, amounting to sales of 2.76m tonnes.

Source: www.fruitnet.com

Gender difference in fruit preference

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Differences between men and women are highly visible even in preferences for various berries and fruits. Sociologists have studied gender based eating differences and the results paint an interesting picture.

It turns out that men are more likely to prefer apples as their favourite fruit, whilst women are likely to go for citrus fruits.

Kiwi fruit and mango are also higher valued by women. For bananas, peaches, pineapples and grapes, both genders agree.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russia: Citrus prices hit rock bottom due to oversupply

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Stas Poluektov, representative of the Russian importer Eurofruit-SPb, assured that the citrus market in Russia (particularly mandarins and limes) is in a much worse situation than last year. Stas says that “due to an oversupply of citrus in the Russian market, prices have been too low. There is too much fruit in the market, which has had a great impact on prices.”

One of the main reasons why there is too much citrus in the Russian market is because of the great volume of citrus imported from South Africa, which has affected Argentinian citrus and the industry as a whole. Those most benefited from this oversupply have been the Russian consumers, who have had much cheaper fruit due to the huge supply.

Eurofruit-SPb expects to continue importing Argentinian citrus until the end of October, and if necessary, the season will be extended until November.  Stas Poluektov expects the market to stabilise in August, which is when better prices are expected for Argentinian citrus.

Source: www.freshplaza.com