What we do not grow
Which orange covers May and June in Spain
Not one of ours. Our last picking is Navel Lane Late, which closes in April, and the variety that carries the Spanish window through May and into June is Valencia Late, which we do not grow. The two windows overlap in spring, and that overlap is the only clean place to hand a programme over.
Side by side
| What you are comparing | Navel Lane Late | Valencia Late |
|---|---|---|
| Picking window published for Spain | January – April | 20 March – 15 June |
| Botanical species | Citrus x sinensis | Citrus x sinensis |
| Seeds in the fruit | Seedless | 1 to 4 per fruit |
| What it is grown for | Table / Juice | Fresh market and processing |
Figures for varieties we do not grow come from: Valencia Late: Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, variety datasheet
Which one to order, and when
Your season closes with the navels
Navel Lane Late
It is our last picking and the only variety we list for the closing weeks of our own campaign. Book it knowing the month it stops rather than assuming it runs on.
You have to hold a listing through May and June
Valencia Late, from a grower who has it
We do not grow it and cannot ship it. The IVIA datasheet puts its picking at 20 March to 15 June, so the fruit on that shelf has to come from somewhere else.
You want one Spanish supplier for the whole year
Not us on our own
Four cultivars from l'Horta cover autumn through to April. The rest of the Spanish year needs a second supplier, and that is a cheaper conversation in September than in April.
What this comparison does not settle
- We hold no measurement of our own on Valencia Late. Every figure in its column is the IVIA variety datasheet, and it describes the cultivar as grown in Spain rather than a lot that anyone can ship you.
- Where our own window closes in April is a regional figure, and our picking dates for the season are still unconfirmed. The last weeks of any window are the ones most likely to move.
- The handover carries a cost this table does not show. IVIA records that the neck of a Valencia Late regreens at the end of its picking period, so the fruit that closes the Spanish season does not look like the fruit that opened it.
Two months of Spanish season that are not ours
Our campaign closes with Navel Lane Late in April. The Spanish orange calendar does not close with it. The IVIA datasheet has Valencia Late still being picked to the middle of June, which leaves roughly two months in which a buyer can be supplied with Spanish fruit and cannot be supplied by us. That stretch is the whole subject of this page.
It is written down here rather than left to be found. A programme built in September on the assumption of a full Spanish year runs into the gap in April, which is the worst month to meet it, because the fruit that fills those weeks was committed by somebody else while we were still picking. Start from the weeks we can actually work with.
What fills those weeks is a different orange
Valencia Late sits in a different group of oranges from ours, and the citrus marketing standard keeps the two groups apart on the label. IVIA gives the fruit one to four seeds, where every variety we grow is listed as seedless. The same datasheet calls the juice very low in limonin, which is why one cultivar serves both the fresh market and processing.
To a buyer that reads as a specification change rather than a delivery date. Seeds on their own can end a listing where the customer was promised none, and a rind that regreens in the last weeks of picking can end one on appearance. What each of our four cultivars is for, and where its window sits, is set out on the variety pages.
The overlap is the handover, and it is short
IVIA opens the Valencia Late window on 20 March, with our last navel still on the tree. Those weeks are the only stretch where both products exist at the same time, and they are where a programme changes hands without an empty shelf behind it. Later than that, the change happens across a gap instead of across an overlap.
So the switch wants planning inside the overlap. Two dates have to meet: the last week we can confirm picking, and the first week the other grower can load. Ours are unconfirmed for the coming season, which is one more reason to open the question in autumn. Tell us the delivery weeks you have to hold and we will say which of them are ours.
The other decisions a buyer makes before ordering
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.