Specification
Citrus quality grades and what we can certify
What the European standard requires, and what we have and do not have.
Commercial grades
Extra
Superior quality. No defects beyond very slight skin blemishes.
I
Good quality. Slight defects allowed if they do not affect keeping or presentation.
II
Meets the minimum requirements. Larger defects allowed.
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I, Part B, Part 2. Classification: section II.C.
Minimum juice content
- 30 %Blood oranges
- 33 %Navel group
- 35 %Other varieties
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I, Part B, Part 2. Maturity and juice content: section II.B. The table summarises orange groups; use the full standard for other citrus and its specific conditions.
None yet. No GLOBALG.A.P., no organic, no other private scheme.
If your purchasing policy requires certification, we currently cannot meet that requirement. Independent importers, wholesale buyers and hospitality businesses should also check their own approval rules before discussing an order.
Lot traceability, field records and residue analysis remain pending confirmation with the grower.
What your customer will actually reject
Quality on an order is whatever makes a lot unacceptable, and that is specific to whoever sells it on. A shop building a loose display is looking at appearance; a kitchen is looking at what survives handling and portioning. Premium is not a specification. The cultivar and the class are where it starts. Size comes in beside them, and the practical requirements come after, in words a grower can act on.
A supplier approval questionnaire is better sent before the commercial conversation than after it. It is the fastest way to find out whether this is going anywhere, because some of what it asks for we do not have and will not have this campaign. What evidence you need, and what happens on your side if it does not exist, is worth knowing early.
A reference table is not a measurement
The class and juice content tables on this page come from the marketing standard. They describe what a class means and what a group has to reach, which is a different kind of statement from a result for the fruit in front of you. Ask the supplier to name the class proposed for your order, and to give any measurement you need for the fruit concerned, with the product identity still attached to the result.
Where a measurement is part of purchasing approval, how it was obtained matters as much as the figure: which fruit was sampled, when, and what the result is meant to represent. Our own lot measurements are unconfirmed. A threshold published on a website is a legal minimum for a whole group of cultivars, and it will never be a reading from a load.
We hold no certification
The certification row above is empty, and there is no application in progress to change it this campaign. Where a purchasing policy requires a scheme, the requirement is unmet, and no amount of discussion between us will meet it. The exact scheme and scope your business needs is worth stating early, because it is the question most likely to end the conversation and the cheapest one to ask first.
Certification that covers packing or handling belongs to whichever business does the packing or the handling, and a certificate held by another participant in the chain does not extend to a growing operation. We have no certification documents to supply. If that changes, what matters is the specific business and activity named on the document, which is the thing your own customer will check.
Asking for a document that answers something
The pending block on this page is the shortest honest answer to most document requests: the records a buyer asks for first are the ones not written yet. Where an analysis is a condition of purchase, naming the report and the date you need it by turns an open requirement into a visible one, which is the only thing that keeps it from surfacing in the last week. Whether it can be provided for the proposed fruit is the grower's answer to give, not this page's.
A residue report answers one question, for one sample, on one date. Check that the sample it names is the fruit you are buying and that its date is inside the campaign that fruit comes from, because a laboratory result from last March is a true document about fruit you will never receive. Keep the full report rather than the summary page, and keep it with the lot it belongs to.
Post-harvest treatment is another open field on our records. Where your customer needs unwaxed fruit or a particular handling protocol, that requirement comes before the supply question rather than after it, because it can rule out a lot that is otherwise exactly right. A photograph of the peel establishes nothing about what was put on it, and we make no claim that our fruit is untreated.
Agreeing the inspection before the lorry leaves
If you already have a receiving procedure, sending it is easier than describing it. If not, what gets inspected, how observations are recorded and who receives the report are worth agreeing in advance. The accepted specification has to be at the delivery point, in the hands of the people doing the check, because staff who cannot see it cannot tell a wrong size from a damaged package.
A useful report names the shipment, the time of the inspection and the packages affected. Photographs need enough context to connect what is in the frame to what was delivered; a close-up of one orange proves that one orange existed. Labels and documents stay put while the query is open. We publish no claims procedure and no standard settlement terms, so an independent inspection and a reporting deadline have to be agreed directly, for the order in question.
Commercial grade
Extra, Class I and Class II: what each permits and what it means when a claim is raised.
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.