Trade term
Controlled atmosphere, and why citrus mostly skipped it
Controlled atmosphere storage changes the gas mix around the fruit to slow it down, and it transformed how apples and pears are traded. Citrus took a different path: the fruit holds on the tree, which is a cheaper and simpler store than any room, and the trade grew up around that.
The figures
| What it changes | The gas mix around the fruit |
|---|---|
| Where it is standard | Apples and pears |
| What citrus uses instead | The tree, and a short chilled chain |
What it changes on an order
You expect year round supply from one origin
Citrus does not work like apples. Continuity comes from moving between varieties and hemispheres, not from a store.
You are planning a programme
The limit on how late you can buy a variety is the tree, not a warehouse, and that is why the picking window matters as much as it does.
You are comparing quotes across produce
A citrus price does not carry the storage cost an apple price does, and that changes how the two behave through a season.
What this note does not settle
- We hold no storage of our own and offer none. Our fruit is sold against the picking window.
- Some citrus is stored under modified conditions in specific trades; this note describes the general pattern and not every case.
Source: University of California Riverside, Citrus Variety Collection
The technology that made apples and left citrus alone
Controlled atmosphere storage holds fruit in air with the oxygen cut back and the carbon dioxide raised, slowing metabolism far beyond what cold alone achieves. On apples and pears it rebuilt the trade, turning a seasonal fruit into a year round one. On citrus the published benefit is slight, and the fruit rides in ordinary refrigerated air for the reason it always has: the gain does not pay for the equipment.
Push the atmosphere far enough to make a real difference and the fruit objects. Low oxygen drives fermentation, and the flavours that follow are the same stale alcoholic notes an over thick coating produces. Raised carbon dioxide brings injuries of its own to the rind. The window between no effect and damage is narrow, which is a poor foundation for a storage programme.
What actually buys time with citrus
Temperature does most of the work, humidity does the next part by slowing weight loss, and decay control does the rest. Those three are where an extra week comes from. A supplier offering a gas based premium on oranges is offering something the fruit never asked for, and the money goes further on how fast the heat came out and how the fruit was handled before packing.
Modified atmosphere packaging is a different thing and gets confused with this one constantly. A film around a punnet alters the gas about the fruit passively, which is a retail packaging decision with its own consequences for condensation. If somebody quotes you either, ask what it is expected to achieve and over what period. How long our own fruit keeps has never been measured, and the storage field on the datasheets stays open.
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.