Two South African categories predict export drop
The South African avocado export crop has been reduced by around 2.5m cartons as the season reaches its halfway point. At the same time, the country’s citrus industry has announced that its

Short South African citrus season predicted
Export estimates for various citrus categories have been amended downwards: navels by 500,000 15kg cartons to reach an estimate of 24.8 million 15kg cartons; grapefruit by 100,000 cartons to 14.3

California's second lightest Valencia crop in history
California is moving deeper into the second lightest recorded crop of Valencia oranges in its history. The state estimate for the citrus fruit is 16.2 million cartons this season--that follows the

Prices for Italian watermelons and melons have increased by 100% in the past week
"Last year in the same period, we sent about 8,000 cartons of watermelons and melons a day to wholesale markets and retailers. Now it's only a little over 2,000. It is the result of very bad

Salix Fruits expands summer citrus programme
Salix Fruits is expanding its summer citrus campaign, with imports into the US forecast to reach than 1m cartons this year, an increase of 30 per cent on 2022. US sales manager Mechi Gatti said

Movement of asparagus from Peru through South Florida ports expected to remain the same
Movement of asparagus from Peru imports through South Florida ports of entry is expected to remain about the same. Trading moderate. Prices large much higher and standard higher. 11-pound cartons

Successful Australian avocado trial for IG International
IG International has successfully completed its first trial shipment of Australian avocado with 176 cartons of the fruit landing in Mumbai. The Indian importer collaborated with Australian avocado

"The fruit and vegetable sector should perhaps be the last among all sectors subject to these rules."
The European Commission's new proposal on packaging, which aims to reduce excessive packaging and make everything else reusable or recyclable by 2030, has generated a lot of debate recently. We

Peru exported 71.4 million boxes of grapes
During the 2022/23 season, grape exports increased by 10.18% to 71.4 million cartons compared to the previous season. This also represents a 24% increase compared to the 2020/21 campaign, when

Harvest of first lettuce varieties started this week for Quebec grower
Located about one hour south of Montreal and about 15 minutes from the US border, the garden of Quebec is a key growing region for many different vegetable varieties. “We are one of the major

NWCG forecasts larger northwest cherry crop
The NWCG’s preliminary crop estimate projects 19.9m (9kg equivalents) cartons will be sold this year. This would mark a significant increase on the 13.3m cartons packed in 2022. The northwestern

"Optimistic about the current citrus season"
"The grape packing season is slowly coming to an end, and is expected to continue until week 26. Meanwhile, the apple season is in full swing," says Rene Tunker, of Looije Packing. "Foodtainers,

A closer look at South African citrus for 2023
Vanguard has received the full estimate for the 2023 citrus crop in South Africa. The latest estimate is 165.6 million cartons--800,000 more than last year. Two interesting commodities have

South African rail issues threaten citrus growth
The optimisation of South Africa’s rail system has been identified as a key enabler if the country’s citrus industry is to realise its vision of exporting 260m cartons of the fruit by 2032.

NWCG releases round one estimate
Around 20m cartons of cherries could be packed in the US Pacific Northwest this season. That’s according to industry association Northwest Cherry Growers, which represents growers from the

Lemon exports pull ahead of last year
The South African lemon harvest which started three to four weeks earlier than last year has resulted in accelerated exports: by week 17, exactly two million cartons (15kg) more than last year YTD

SAAGA encourages South Africans to add an avo (or two) to any meal
Due to the expected increase in avocado volumes (now estimated at 20 million 4 kg cartons for exports) and an early start to the 2023 season, the South African Avocado Growers' Association (SAAGA)

Peru: Sweet Globe leads grape exports for the first time
Changes in the Andean country's variety and export picture have already been observed for some time. In the latest campaign, the Red Globe variety had to give way to Sweet Globe for the first

South African lemons head to markets outside Europe
The South African citrus season is barely a month underway, and the country’s lemon exporters are clearly favouring Middle Eastern, Russian and Asian markets for their early shipments. The first

South Africa: Citrus exports go mainly to Russia, Asia and the Middle East
The citrus season has been underway in Southern Africa for about a month, covering mainly South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eswatini, with lemon exports going mainly to the Middle East (50%), Russia

More than one million cartons of pears exported to China in first season
The top fruit harvest is well underway in South Africa, with 12 million cartons of apples already packed and exported. The apple export season is a good third of the way through. Nine million

Carton Pack acquisisce Smilesys
Carton Pack S.p.A., a company specialising in the production of packaging for the fruit and vegetable and food sectors, founded in 1970 by the Leone family with production headquarters in

Carton Pack reveals Smilesys acquisition
Italian packaging specialist Carton Pack has revealed that it has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Smilesys. Smilesys was founded in 2013 by CEO Ernesto Zanarella and is focused on

New packaging machine for multi-format cartons
INDUSER presents a new adaptation of a packaging line for tomatoes, but this time for two carton sizes. The packaging line - whose design considers from the product feeding to the associative

Ecuador: Banana exports down at the beginning of the year
From January to February 2023, exports amounted to 66.8 million cartons. This is 0.47% less than in the same period last year. In terms of destination, 32% was destined for the European Union