Our orange programme runs on two legs. The Navel group — Navelina, Washington Navel, Lane Late — covers October to April and is sold as an eating orange: seedless, easy to segment, high colour. Valencia takes over in March and runs to June as the juice and late-market variety.
Navels carry limonin and will develop bitterness in juice within a few hours of extraction, so they are not a juicing fruit regardless of what the price says. If the enquiry is for juice, the answer is Valencia. If it is for retail fruit bowl or food service segments, it is Navelina early and Lane Late from February.
Turkish Navels size well — a normal year gives a size peak at count 8 to 10 on a 15 kg carton — and colour without degreening from mid-November. Earlier pick will need ethylene treatment, which we will do on request and declare on the lot.