Commercial grade
Extra class citrus, and what the premium buys
Extra is defined by the absence of defects rather than by a list of permitted ones, and only very slight superficial blemishes survive it. It is also the single class the standard does not allow to deteriorate a little after dispatch, and the only one requiring uniform colouring inside the package.
The figures
| Definition | Superior quality, characteristic of the variety, free from defects except very slight superficial ones |
|---|---|
| The condition attached | Provided they do not affect the general appearance, the quality, the keeping quality and the presentation in the package |
| Quality tolerance | 5 % by number or weight may fail Extra while still meeting Class I |
| The tolerance inside it | Of that 5 %, no more than 0.5 % in total may be fruit meeting only Class II |
| Size tolerance | 10 %, the same figure as Class I and Class II |
| Presentation | Uniformity in colouring is required for Extra and for no other class |
| After dispatch | The slight deterioration the standard allows at later marketing stages applies to classes other than Extra |
What it changes on an order
You are paying a premium for the letter on the label
What the premium buys is a narrower definition, a narrower tolerance and a package that has to look one colour throughout. It does not buy a promise that every fruit in the lot is faultless, because the tolerance is still sitting there.
You inspect at the receiving dock rather than at origin
This is where Extra separates itself. For the other classes the standard expects a little deterioration by the time a load arrives; for Extra it says nothing of the kind, and that silence works in your favour.
You are writing the order line
A class on its own is half a specification. Class governs blemish and shape and says nothing about diameter, so a size code has to travel beside it or the order is open at one end.
What this note does not settle
- A tolerance is measured across a lot and not across a box. One bad box proves nothing by itself, though the standard does require the visible part of a package to represent its contents.
- We commit to no class on this page. Which class a given week can actually fill is a question for the grower and for the fruit on the tree.
- Extra is a commercial quality class. It carries no food safety meaning and no certification, and we hold no certification of any kind.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I Part B Part 2 (specific marketing standard for citrus fruit), UNECE Standard FFV-14 concerning the marketing and commercial quality control of citrus fruit
A class defined by what is absent
Every other class is written as a list. Class I names the slight defects it will carry, Class II widens them, and a lot either shows something on the list or it does not. Extra is written the other way round: the fruit must be free from defects, and then one narrow door is left open for very slight superficial ones. There is no catalogue to check a blemish against, which sounds stricter and is, but it also moves the entire argument onto two words.
Those two words are very slight. Nobody has defined them in millimetres and nobody is going to, because the same mark reads differently on a thin rind and a coarse one. What settles it in practice is a reference sample agreed before the season, or an inspector both sides accept. Buyers who skip that step are not buying Extra; they are buying an adjective and hoping the packhouse reads it the way they do.
Uniform colour is required, uniform size is not
This is the pairing that catches people out. For Extra, and for no other class, the standard requires uniformity in colouring inside the package. In the same breath it says that uniformity in size is not required, and that applies to Extra exactly as it applies to the rest. A package can therefore be faultless Extra and still hold fruit that visibly steps down in diameter from one row to the next.
For the packhouse this is a sorting decision taken at the line, not a property of the tree. Colour can be held uniform by grading a day's pick into batches; that costs throughput, and the premium is partly paying for it. Size is the separate lever, and it only tightens if the order asks for it: either by naming a size code or by capping how far diameters may spread inside one package.
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.