Month by month
Spanish oranges in June, where the window shuts
June is where the Spanish orange window itself runs out. IVIA puts the last Valencia Late picking in the middle of the month, and in the weekly series we publish the final cultivar line stops here too, leaving the national weighted average running on alone. Nothing of ours has been on the tree since April.
The figures
| Month | June |
|---|---|
| On the tree in this area | Nothing of ours is picked this month |
| Varieties in window | 0 |
| Last Spanish window to close | Valencia Late, around 15 June according to IVIA |
| Weekly market observations we hold | ISO weeks 23 to 27, with a single cultivar observation among them |
| Still quoted after that observation | The national weighted average, and no cultivar line at all |
What it changes on an order
You treat Spanish oranges as a year round line
This is the month that stops being possible from the tree. What gets offered as Spanish after it has been in a store or has come from somewhere else, and the difference belongs on the specification rather than in a conversation afterwards.
You are checking a supplier claim
An offer of freshly picked Spanish orange dated past this month deserves one question: when was it cut. The answer sorts honest cold store fruit from a label doing work the orchard did not.
You compare cultivars using published figures
From here until winter there is one line left in the series and it is an average across cultivars. Any comparison between two Spanish varieties has to wait for the new campaign to be notified.
What this note does not settle
- A window closing is a statement about picking and not about trade. Fruit cut in June keeps moving for weeks, and how well it holds is a cold store question with a cold store answer.
- None of the cultivars that reach June are ours, so this page describes a market we are not in and offers nothing from it.
- The weekly series behind these observations covers one calendar year at the ex-packaging stage, and it arrives some weeks after the period it describes.
Source: Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, Valencia Late datasheet, European Commission, fruit and vegetables market observatory
Two endings that land in the same month
One ending is agronomic. The published picking window for the last Spanish cultivar closes around the middle of this month, which is the point where a Spanish orange stops being something that comes off a tree and becomes something that comes out of a store. The other ending is statistical, and it arrives in the same few weeks: the last cultivar observation in the series we publish falls here, and after it the only line still moving is an average.
Those two things are connected. Weekly notification depends on a representative market existing to be notified, so when picking finishes the cultivar detail leaves the data along with the fruit. Anyone who wanted to compare two Spanish varieties on published figures has until about now to do it.
The question worth asking from here on
From this month onward the interesting thing about any Spanish orange is its picking date. Stored fruit is legitimate and a great deal of it travels perfectly well, and it is still a different product from fruit cut last week. The difference turns up in firmness, in the state of the rind, and in how many days the fruit has left once it reaches the far end.
Put the question in the enquiry rather than in the complaint. Ask for the picking week, the storage conditions and whether the lot has been through a cold store at all. A supplier who answers all three is worth more than one who quotes a shade cheaper and answers none.
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.