Demand of Mandarins to Exceed Supplies in 2022

Article by: Hari Yellina (Orchard Tech)

Supplies of mandarins are anticipated to tighten up in the new year. At Trinity Fruit Sales in Fresno, CA, Levon Ganajian says that depending on the variety, mandarin production is generally down thanks partly to the heatwave seen this summer but more likely because the trees are alternate-bearing. Currently, Trinity Fruit is winding down its clementine season. “We didn’t see a lot of issues with supplies, primarily because there was so much imported product coming in that overlapped with domestic clementine production.

Imports were coming in from countries such as Spain on the East Coast and Chile and Peru on the West Coast. Following the clementines and squeezing in before Tango production begins is the Page variety. “These have really good sugars and it has a little bit of a firmer peel but they eat like candy,” says Ganajian, noting the Page tends to see similar volumes year after year, as it will this year.

Then for the first week in January is something new for Trinity Fruit–sweet Dekopon mandarins its marketing under its Sweet Honeys brand. “We have almost 400 acres of it planted. They’re not all in production but we’re going to have a pretty good-sized crop this year. And our production will double each year for the next four to five years,” he says. “It’s a big deal for us and we’ll be a big player in this field.” Trinity Fruit is packing the fruit in a one layer euro pack or consumer boxes, though it is working with customer pack requests as well.