RIOblanco’s orange season officially began from Sociedad Agrícola Oasis Ltda fields, located in the Los Olivos sector of Ovalle in northern Chile.
Enrique Villalobos, farm manager, says that the harvest started at the beginning of July with the Fukumoto variety and at the end of the same month the harvest of Spring Navel, started.
“Thanks to the rains over the last few weeks in the area, the flowering of the trees will continue and we will be able to have a second harvest in about 30 more days.”, Villalobos adds.
For this season we estimate a total production of around 1.2 to 1.5 million kilos of processed fruit from both Fukumoto and Spring Navel varieties. The Spring Navel variety is notable for its better shape, being a more rounded fruit with a fairly well-closed navel.
Villalobos also said that “we have some fruit on the trees that we left for a second harvest opportunity because it has not yet acquired its final color. This will allow us to have a second harvest in about 30 days, extending the orange harvest season.”
The main market for the oranges of RIOblanco is the United States.
