Defect and tolerance
Water spot on oranges, and the rain behind it
Water spot forms once fruit has already changed colour and the rind takes up water from rain or dew. The surface breaks, essential oil escapes, and the white layer under it collapses and dries. Cracks around the stem button are typical. All of that happens on the tree, before anyone picks.
The figures
| Local name | Pixat in the Valencian citrus belt, mancha de agua in Spanish, water spot in English |
|---|---|
| What starts it | Water absorbed through the rind after rain or dew, once the fruit has turned colour |
| What happens underneath | The skin ruptures, essential oils are released, and the albedo collapses and dries |
| Where the cracks appear | Around the stem button, the clavillet |
| What favours it | High humidity, mild temperatures, and rind that has aged on the tree |
| Nearest clause in the standard | Progressive skin defects, provided they do not affect the flesh, allowed slight in Class I and allowed in Class II |
What it changes on an order
You are auditing a supplier rather than a load
This one argues about the picking calendar. A grower who leaves fruit hanging through a wet spell will show it whatever the packhouse does afterwards, so the answer lives in harvest dates and not in line settings.
You break pallets for loose retail display
Dark dry patches at the button read to a shopper as old fruit, and they sit exactly where a hand picks the orange up. The same lot placed in a net bag or a juice channel loses far less.
You are comparing two origins after the same storm
Incidence follows the weather over the growing area in the weeks before harvest. Two suppliers quoting the same class after a wet autumn are not offering the same risk, and neither is lying.
What this note does not settle
- Water spot and oleocellosis both come from peel oil that has escaped, and both darken with time. The cause is different and so is the remedy, and a photograph settles neither.
- The standard does not name the disorder. Classification turns on extent and on whether the flesh is reached, both of which are read by eye.
- We publish no incidence figures for our own harvest and hold none confirmed by the grower.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I Part B Part 2 (specific marketing standard for citrus fruit), IRTA, Manual descriptivo de podredumbres y fisiopatías en naranjas y mandarinas
A defect that argues about the calendar
Water spot puts the blame somewhere unusual. Nothing on the packing line produced it and no handler touched the fruit before it formed. It came from rain or heavy dew landing on rind that had already turned colour and had already begun to age, at a moment when the tree was still holding fruit past its best date. Trace it backwards and you arrive at a harvest decision rather than a handling one.
Which is why the useful question to a supplier is about their picking window and not about their grading equipment. Growers chasing a price by leaving fruit hanging through a mild wet autumn will show more of it, whatever machinery they own. Growers who pull a block on time show less, with worse machinery. The correlation runs through the calendar.
Where the loss actually lands
Presentation decides what this costs you, far more than severity does. Dark dry patches gather around the button, which is exactly the part of an orange a shopper's hand closes on to lift it off a display. In a net bag, behind a label, or on a juicing line, the identical fruit passes without comment. One lot, two completely different economics, according to where it ends up.
So the negotiation is worth having before a load is allocated rather than after it has been rejected. Tell a supplier which channel the fruit is going into and a marked lot can be routed to the place where the mark costs nothing, at a price reflecting that. Buyers who discover the defect on the display floor have already lost the option.
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.