Month by month
Spanish oranges in October, and what opens
October is when the Valencian campaign opens, and it opens late in the month. Navelina is the only one of our varieties whose regional window reaches into October, and the fortnight it reaches is the second one. No planting of Navelina is declared for this campaign, so October is a month to plan in rather than a month to order from.
The figures
| Month | October |
|---|---|
| On the tree in this area | Navelina |
| Varieties in window | 1 |
| Window that opens | Navelina, second half of the month |
| Plantings declared for Navelina | None for the 2026/27 campaign |
| Next windows to open | Navel Foios and Clementina Clemenules, first half of November |
What it changes on an order
You are shortlisting for an autumn programme
The harvest calendar and the lot list answer different questions in October. One says a variety is cut in the area this month, the other says whether anyone here has it. Ask for the second before you write a delivery week into a contract.
You have been offered Spanish navel this month
An October offer is either very early fruit from the first variety of the season or fruit from another origin sold under a Spanish label. Ask for the cultivar name and the packing station, and the answer separates the two in one line.
You buy on rind colour
Early season fruit reaches eating maturity before the rind loses its green, and the marketing standard treats colour and maturity as separate requirements. Say which of the two your customer actually checks on arrival.
What this note does not settle
- A regional window says when a variety is cut in l'Horta. It does not say that a lot exists, and in October ours does not.
- The weekly price series this site publishes carries no observation for October. It runs on the current calendar year and stops at its most recent reported week.
- Our own picking dates for these plots have not been published yet, so the fortnight above is the sector window and not a date from our orchards.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I
Why the season opens in the second half
The Valencian campaign does not begin on the first of the month. The earliest variety grown here is Navelina and its regional window opens in the second fortnight, so the first half of October is a stretch of watching rather than buying. Growers are reading rind colour and internal maturity at the same time, and those two things do not arrive together. Fruit reaches eating maturity while the skin is still carrying green.
That gap is why the first Spanish fruit of the year arrives at a packing station with a colour question attached. The marketing standard sets a colouring requirement for oranges alongside its maturity requirements, which means a buyer checking the dock and a grower checking the tree are looking at different properties of the same orange. Agree in October which of the two decides acceptance. It is the one month of the year where the answers separate this cleanly.
What to ask for when the lot list is empty
Our declared plantings do not include the variety whose window opens this month. Publishing that is awkward and it is the most useful line on this page, because it turns an October enquiry into a question about the weeks ahead. The plantings behind our catalogue enter their windows in November, and the sizes and formats that will fill them get decided before that happens.
So the enquiry worth sending in October is about the shape of a programme. Tell us the weeks you need covered, the destination and the size band you sell in, and the reply can say which of our varieties has a chance of matching and which has none. An answer that arrives this month still leaves you room to go elsewhere for the weeks we cannot reach.
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.