Twenty years ago, fresh citrus availability at the retail level was mainly during the winter months supplied by domestic production from California, Florida and Texas. Nowadays, we tend to forget about that seasonality as we see and demand citrus fruits throughout the entire year. If domestic citrus production is during winter, what is summer citrus? The Summer Citrus is a category of delicious fresh citrus fruits imported from the southern hemisphere while they are in winter, and the northern hemisphere is in summer. Consumers today have on their table a variety of superior, sweet citrus fruits year-round. This change in supply has been possible thanks to the advances in supply chain logistics, best practices from growers, and advancements in communications.
Why is this important? Citrus is the second highest selling fruit category in produce after berries. Everyone enjoys a cold iced lemonade, a fresh clementine as a snack, a citrus vinaigrette on a salad, flavorful citrus on barbeques and tasty tart desserts during the months of summer. Also, fresh citrus meets consumer expectations on health benefits, convenience, and shelf life. For these reasons, companies like Seald Sweet responsibly source clementines, oranges, lemons, and grapefruit from growers located in Argentina, Chile, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay, as well as other countries, to meet consumer expectations.
Why do we love them? Summer citrus is the answer for seasonality problems. They do not compete with domestic production and at the same time allow us to have quality fresh citrus on our table whenever we desire. For more ideas and inspiration, watch this video featured by Seald Sweet with great recipes worth trying using this sweet and delicious fruits.
