The question we get most often from new importers is: why don't you pick the crop fully ripe? The answer is that fruit doesn't stop changing once it's cut. A shipment that leaves the port at peak ripeness arrives two weeks later well past it.
Three measures we take before picking
- Colour stage: we work against a reference colour chart for each variety rather than relying on the eye alone.
- Sugar level: measured on a refractometer, from samples taken at the edges and the middle of the field — not from one spot.
- Flesh firmness: measured with a penetrometer, and the most reliable indicator of whether the fruit will survive the journey.
Transit time is part of the equation
A sea shipment to a European port takes between 8 and 14 days depending on the line. Those days sit inside the ripening curve, not outside it. That is why the same variety is harvested on a different day depending on where it is going.
Picking in passes
We don't clear a field in one go. We go through the trees three or four times, taking only what has reached the target stage on each pass. It is slower and it costs more, but it is the difference between a uniform carton and a carton with two soft fruits spoiling everything around them.
