This week, GT Parris of Seald Sweet shares a 360 degree look at Summer Citrus from South Africa’s program, from the growers and fruit production to the supply-chain process, trade communications and how our growers connect with our retail partners.
GT does a fantastic job at showing how committed the South African citrus growers are to serving the US market and explains how an import program like this takes an enormous amount of pre-season planning. It starts with a very simple, but solid business model of matching the available supply from the production side to the demand of the market, and a mission of complimenting local citrus production when otherwise unavailable.
A typical question we hear is, “What is the quality like this year?” GT elaborates on the quality and eating experience of the World’s Finest Summer Citrus proudly grown, shipped and sold by our South African growers. It is important to acknowledge that the US consumer only expects the best quality and that is exactly what South African citrus growers are supplying them throughout the summer months.
This interview with GT Parris was filmed in April in Vero Beach, FL. This is typically the time when growers, importers and retailers fix their citrus import program for the upcoming Summer.
On the production side, we expect a very normal year. The Mediterranean climate here in the Western Cape of South Africa, with hot dry summers and rainfall during the winter, are really the perfect conditions for growing the perfect piece of the fruit.
Our first fruit will arrive in the US early June, as we kick off with early Easy Peelers varieties. These will later move onto the later Mandarin varieties, arriving late July till early October. We have started with a little bit of Navels as well, with heavier arrivals expected from later in June onwards till end September/early October, and then we will move onto Midknights arriving through October. We also offer Cara-Cara’s, with an arrival window very much similar to Navels.
We will soon start to pack Star Ruby with arrival towards the end of June through mid-September.
A few weeks ago we had a lot of rain here in the Western Cape. We had a few slow days, but now we are back on track again. For us this was only a slightly delayed supply-chain and have not made any adjustment to our overall volumes. We are now moving into our heavier packing and shipping weeks, and the season is all up to speed, as expected for this time of the year.
Thank you to all our loyal service providers for the continued support and your contribution to our program!
Please stay up to date with us our during the season and reach to out to our grower-exporters or importers to secure your citrus during the summer months
Proudly shipping and selling the world’s finest Summer Citrus!
Thank you for the continued support!
Suhanra Conradie
CEO – Summer Citrus from South Africa
suhanra@summercitrus.com
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