I live in a mountain valley in Mallorca where hundreds of tons of perfect Canoneta oranges fall to the floor and rot each year because the cost of picking them outweighs their market value. The valley became wealthy from this fruit in the 19th century but the economics no longer add up. [0]
At the same time the price of orange juice (elsewhere) has skyrocketed [1], yet this rural community seems unable to take advantage.
I tend to avoid projects where the economics are challenging, or where the demand has fallen off. Vidalia is unique because it's a boutique item, not a commodity. Because of it's unique nature, we're able to charge premium pricing, allowing us to stay in business (& even at our premium prices, the margins are razor thin, so we're constantly watching bottom line). While I tremendously enjoy this project, this is not an easy business to operate.
There was a company in Mallorca that tried something similar with lemons about 12 years ago: Pep Lemon. I remember hearing that they noticed huge amounts of lemons lying unused all over the island and wanted to do something worthwhile with them.
They stopped production in 2019, citing a “lack of investors.” During their operation, they were involved in a legal dispute with PepsiCo over the use of the name Pep. I’m not sure whether this was because of their cola product, Pep Cola, or simply due to the similarity of the brand names. Pep is a diminutive of Josep in Catalan and is very common, so it may have been just a coincidence.
They tried to export their products, but this turned out to be expensive, so they instead hoped for strong local support within Mallorca (see point 1 below). In that article they say that they produced 1000 bottles a year in their factory. That sounds very little; I wonder if that is correct?
The story of soft drinks on the island is astonishing. 130 drinks companies at one point. My understanding is that Coca Cola took over distribution for the countless small companies and - once embedded - said we don't need your product any more, adios. Don't know if true but a tale often told here.
I'm sure I've seen video of oranges being harvested mechanically. I'm sure it can be done but probably not economically everywhere especially if the terrain is difficult. For mechanical olive harvesting see: https://ilcircolo.eu/olive-harvesting-by-hand-or-with-machin...
That may be true of modern farms elsewhere but is not the case for historical groves here. They are sometimes spaced appropriately but that's about it. Usually on vehicular-inaccessible mountainside terraces.
You have Mr. Kraus making sorbet and selling that on the internet, don’t you? Though I guess he doesn’t come close to using up all of the supply… and his domain name is a bit more complicated than what Peter usually goes for. I can’t, to this day, remember how to pronounce Sòller. We keep asking the locals every time we visit. Do you own a grove yourself?
Not familiar with Mr Kraus. Shortcut to remembering how to pronounce Sòller is to say 'So yeah'. We're surrounded by scarcely-maintained groves with owners pleading to do something with the fruit and there's only so many marmalades (wrong kind of oranges) or Aperol copycats one can make. Orange blossom ice cream a big success this year.
Fet a Sòller. The guy is a German who noticed the same problem in the 90s and figured to use the surplus for making ice cream & marketing it to the Vitamin C starved people in Germany.
Perhaps an artisanal single-origin soda could work? Use the pulp and the oil from the peels to make some form of syrup or concentrate locally. Mix it with water and label it in Hamburg, London, Stockholm.
Can you ask your neighbors if they’ll sell an all you-can-pick pass in Febrary? I know two families who would buy it in an instant. There's an email address in my bio here.
In fact, I think I haven't met a tourist on the island who wasn't interested when I told them that we visited a grove and picked some oranges. Especially those with kids! Someone could set up a website that allows you to buy such a pass that directly routes you to the appropriate grove. You can spread the word about that website by collaborating with small local businesses like car rentals, hotels, Airbnbs, etc.. I’m sure many of them would be delighted to put such a flyer into their welcome kit.
How tough is it juice them and make orange juice that can be sold (to Spanish or EU standards)? I would think you could start small and grow over time.
Mallorca is a mountainous island in the middle of the med.
Exporting something from Mallorca seems like a logistical challenge to me.
Exporting something refrigerated or frozen, even more so...
Maybe store-shelf product such as gummies or something?
Fresh juice takes 2kg of oranges per ~1l/~1kg. Plus electricity and handling costs...
Still, you'll need a large multiplier on the transformation process: organic EU orange are 1.7€/kg, standard are 1€ wholesale market price (meaning its origin is continental spain or italy I guess).
Frozen orange juice is 3.93€ (Brazil)
I think the best bet for juice would be to export frozen concentrate.
And despite the logistical challenges you cite, lemons imported from places like Argentina are now cheaper to buy at Palma's wholesale market than the average wholesale price paid for local fruit, which has subsequently plummeted even further.
Except that lemons are picked for "cheap" in Argentina (and oranges in Morrocco or Valencia), industrially packaged to ports (most likely to BCN or VLC ports) and then shipped in containers to Palma.
Pick the oranges in the middle of the island: not cheap, as stated. Squeeze & freeze the juice (likely around Palma): not cheap, not even including transportation. Ship them back to the continent: probably not cheap either.
Transshipment is extremely costly and even more so at a smaller scale, and that's what we're comtemplating here.
At the same time the price of orange juice (elsewhere) has skyrocketed [1], yet this rural community seems unable to take advantage.
What would you do?
[0] https://ruralhotelsmallorca.com/guides/The-History-of-Soller... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c397n3jl3z8o