Preview of the organic overseas citrus season

Preview of the organic overseas citrus season

As always, this summer Eosta will be supplying organic Nature & More citrus from overseas. Eosta is known as a supplier of a wide range of premium organic fruits and vegetables and we excel in citrus fruit. We thought it would be interesting to check in with Citrus Product Manager Koen van Velthoven. 

N&M: What is the latest news Koen?  
Koen: The first Lemons from Peru will arrive in week 18 already. With a new warehouse at our supplier, we expect to deliver even better quality than last year. We expect a good season that will start relatively early. Finally, after 2 years of the covid crisis we have been able to visit our growers in person at their farms and meet them at Fruit Logistica in Berlin again, so the upcoming season has been well prepared. The Citrus crop is looking good both in quantity and quality. We expect a good season that will start relatively early this year. 

We expect a very good season for lemons, juicy with an excellent taste. Perfect climate conditions, excellent soil and a lot of experience are the three reasons why the fruit is so good. Demand is soaring at the moment and with an early finish of European crop we expect this demand will be likely to stay extremely high throughout the season. 

N&M: How will the fruit be packed ? 
Koen: All our lemons can be packed according client specific packings. Of course our intention is to pack as little as possible since the most sustainable packaging is no packaging. We have a number of options including paperflows, layered fruit with paper inlay trays and Natural Branding for grapefruits and limes. Cellulose nets are a more sustainable alternative to plastic netting. 

N&M: Will you only be importing South African citrus? 
Koen: No, at Eosta we have a “multiple sourcing approach” so that we can offer stable programs for our customers. Therefore, we will once again be importing organic citrus from South Africa, Mexico and Peru! 

N&M: Eosta also supplies Grapefruits, Oranges and Limes, what is the situation there?  
Koen: About the same for the lemons. The Egyptian orange is again of top quality and contains as much as 49% juice this year. So we will send a so called ‘Juice Alarm’. If you are looking for dry and tasteless citrus, better not order your fruits at Eosta 😉. We keep sourcing from different countries. 

N&M: What about the Citrus specialties that have been introduced last year?  
Koen: Yes, we are looking forward to deliver the Citrus Caviar, Buddha’s Hand and Kaffir Limes from Morocco again. These products brighten up the shelves. 

N&M: Can you tell us something about the sustainability goals of the N&M grower? 
Koen: Our products come from reliable suppliers, with a focus that goes beyond the traditional way of farming organic. From each N&M grower we register their progressions on matters like climate, water usage, soil management, biodiversity, individual & society-related issues. 

N&M: Anything you want to add?  
Koen: As always for overseas citrus I would like to advise all our customers not to wait too long as it will be difficult to buy organic oranges this summer without some form of program. Last 2 years there has been a huge demand for citrus. We expect a similar pull for this year. 

We are looking forward to a fantastic season, together with our customer !