Checking the progress of the Spanish Citrus
The processing of citrus fruit is underway, and Tommy went to check in on the progress in Murcia, Spain.
This region of Spain is well known for growing quantities of excellent fruit and vegetables. Beacon have been buying citrus peels from this region for many years now.
Estimating fresh citrus
In this region, the Bitter Orange is processed first, followed by Sweet Orange and finally the Lemon. We have to make ‘accurate’ estimates of what fresh fruit will be required to produce the correct tonnages of dried peel. The discarded flesh of the fruit is used for animal feed after drying.
Hanging the peels
It takes around 15 days to process 1 tonne of dried peel and with current weather conditions the peels are taking around 4 days to dry. The peels are all hung on lines and under cover protecting them from any rain but still maximising the effects of the sun. Once dried the peels are packaged before being transported to the UK. At Beacon we are trying to secure as much stock as possible within the UK before the Brexit deadline of 29th March 2019.
More trips out to Spain
It is safe to say that Tommy will not be asked back to work as the collection of the peels from the lines proved quite problematic. The peels dry around the lines meaning there is a skilful technique to removing them without breakages.
After many breakages it was clear Tommy did not discover this technique and he was moved on with no wages!
We will be making more trips out to Spain and at the same time continue to buy from other origins such as Egypt and Morocco.
Please speak to Tommy or Michael if you have any queries.
