The Egyptian citrus season is coming to a close

Australian company BGP International have supply partners around the worlds, including unique supply arrangements in Australia. The company supply a variety of fruit, but specialises in citrus and grapes.

The Egyptian citrus season is coming to a close and it has not been an easy one for growers, one of Egypt's main markets is Asia, but shipping to Asia this season was seriously disrupted by the conflict in the Red Sea which has meant vessels have had to take the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, adding at least two weeks the transit time.

"We sent around 50% less to Asia this season," said Martin Cowie, CEO at BGP International. "This did have a significant impact on business. As a company, we focus on the Far East and subcontinent and do not send a lot into Europe, so to switch exports there at short notice would have been tricky."

The Egyptian citrus was looking very good, with nice, clean fruit, but the fruit started to soften early which could lead to problems at arrival in the markets.

"At BGP we are very lucky to have our guy on the ground in Egypt who checks every shipment at every packhouse before it leaves. We were very mindful of suitable quality for the long transit to Asia, so the industry sent a lot to the Middle East by road, but this put pressure on truck availability."

Globally the juice market has been strong, but the Egyptian industry does not appear to place so much reliance on this, it's quite a very different situation from the Australian, and other markets.