Size code
Orange size 6, the smallest we pack routinely
Size 6 is the smallest code any line in our catalogue fills as a matter of course, and only two of them do. Our earliest navel stops above it, so this size belongs to the middle and the end of the campaign rather than to its opening weeks. Below this code our packing stops being routine and turns into a request.
The figures
| Size code | 6 |
|---|---|
| Diameter range | 70–80 mm |
| Varieties we pack in this size | Navel Foios, Navel Lane Late |
What it changes on an order
You buy for a mesh or net presentation
Smaller fruit is what fills a retail net, and a net is a sales package with a sizing rule of its own. Settling the presentation and the code together avoids the case where the code is right and the bag is wrong.
Your programme runs past the new year
The two varieties filling this code routinely are the mid and the late one, which is convenient for a programme that runs long and awkward for one that starts in autumn. Name the months you need and the answer changes shape.
You are negotiating on yield rather than appearance
Sizes at this end of the scale come off the same trees as the larger codes and are graded out of the same pick. What you are buying is a share of the distribution the grower actually has, which makes it a conversation about proportions.
What this note does not settle
- Routine is not the same as guaranteed. What a given week yields in this code depends on the crop and on the grading, and we quote it week by week.
- The harvest windows behind this page are the generic ones for this growing area. Our own picking dates are still to be confirmed.
- Which presentation suits this size is a commercial preference that changes by chain. No regulation settles it and neither does this page.
The last size we grade without being asked
Routine matters more than possible. A variety listing a code in its range says the trees produce it. A variety packing that code as a matter of course says the line is already set up, the boxes exist, and nobody has to be persuaded. Here is where the second sentence stops being true for us.
Two of our lines fill it, and they are not the two that open the season. Anyone planning an autumn start and a small size at the same time is asking for two things that do not arrive together, and the harvest calendar is the cheapest place to find that out.
Small fruit and the bag it travels in
Fruit at this end of the scale is what fills a retail net, and a net is not a box with a drawstring. It is a sales package. It carries a sizing option of its own, and it sets a different expectation in a shopper's hand than a layered tray does.
Settling the presentation at the same time as the code saves a round of samples. A code that suits the programme and a format that fights the code produce a pallet nobody wants to photograph, and we would rather have that conversation before the fruit is picked.
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.