On Sept. 7, Trent Bishop, sales manager of Lone Star Citrus Growers in Mission, TX, told The Produce News that there was some rain in the south Texas forecast, and the trees needed it. Three weeks later, he could be forgiven if he said “Enough already!”

“Over the last 20 days of September, we got 15 inches of rain,” he said in mid-October. “It is a very good thing for the long term viability of the crop, but we would have liked to have been able to get in and pick some fruit a bit earlier.”

On that Oct. 13 day that he was again talking to The Produce News, Lone Star was packing its first box of sweet Texas red grapefruit for the 2014-15 season, about two weeks later than normal. He said the previous two weeks it was just too wet to get in and pick the fruit and the rain also affected the maturity level of the earliest fruit. Bishop explained that a piece of fruit has three components that determine its eating ability — sugar content, juice content and overall maturity level. The heavy rain tends to increase the juice, which dilutes the sugar a bit and impacts the overall maturity.

So in a citrus peel (instead of a nutshell) that is why the start of the season was delayed a bit. Bishop said combined with the winding down of the California grapefruit season and the equally slow start of Florida grapefruit, the market was in a demand-exceeds-supply situation in mid-October. “We are seeing an opening market of $16.35 to $20.35, depending upon the size of the fruit. That is a typical opening market,” he added.

Bishop said it would take around  two weeks for the grapefruit pipeline to be filled. At that point, prices should come down and volume should reach promotable levels. “I think we will see a lot of fruit in the market Nov. 1 to 10,” he said.

J.B. Cutsinger, president of International Citrus and Produce in Burlingame, CA, and a major buyer-seller of Texas citrus, concurred with Bishop’s assessment. “We are a little late getting started,” he said Oct. 13. “A lot of growers couldn’t get into their fields, but we are slowly getting started right now. We are in a demand exceeds supply situation and should stay that way for the next couple of weeks.”

Cutsinger said the prices were high but both he and Bishop said high prices in the grapefruit industry are rarely an “off-the-charts” situation.

“It’s a fairly stable price structure, just like Florida,” said Bishop.

Cutsinger predicted the market will fall to the $10-$12 per carton range sometime in November leading to some good promotions at retail. “We are expecting some promotions by the middle of November,” he added.

The ICP president said that Texas grapefruit is a very good promotion item throughout the winter and into the spring. He said retailers often promote it until the domestically produced soft fruits come back into season in the spring.

Though the grapefruit season started a couple of weeks late, Bishop said there is plenty of time to catch up, considering the marketing season typically does not end until April 15 or even as late as May 1. “I’m sure we will catch up” in terms of volume “over the course of the next six months,” he said.

In mid-October, Bishop said Texas oranges were in better shape than Texas grapefruit. Growers were harvesting and packing the fruit and there wasn’t much competition in the marketplace. He said there were still some Valencia’s from California but the California’s Navel crop hadn’t gotten started in a big way. He added that California’s Navel crop is early this year and will affect the Texas orange season. Texas oranges do have a following throughout the country but they are particularly popular closer to home, and Bishop was looking forward to a good season for that crop. Texas oranges are often touted for their sweetness.