Mandarin season by country

Roughly June to September, filling the gap when Northern Hemisphere citrus is out of season. Peru has moved steadily towards easy-peeler varieties for European retail.

Roughly June to September, overlapping Peru’s window almost exactly. Between the two origins, Southern Hemisphere easy-peelers cover the whole Northern Hemisphere summer.

Roughly April to September out of Entre Ríos and Corrientes, alongside the lemon programme and often through the same ports.

Roughly March to September. South African easy-peelers have grown faster than any other part of its citrus basket, driven by European retail moving away from loose oranges.

Roughly September to March. Moroccan easy-peelers are now a fixture of the European autumn, and Nadorcott in particular is the late variety that carries the season into the new year.

Roughly September to March, out of Valencia and Castellón. Spain is the reference point for the entire global easy-peeler trade: when Spanish clementines are on the shelf, no Southern Hemisphere programme has a market.

Roughly April to October, opening with Imperials and finishing with the late Murcotts and Afourers. It runs a few weeks ahead of the Navel window and overlaps it in the middle, so an Australian citrus programme is usually both fruits on one booking.

Roughly November to January, out of Hunan, Jiangxi and Guangxi. The window lands on the Northern Hemisphere winter alongside Spain and Morocco, but the volume goes to Southeast Asia and Russia rather than west.

Satsumas from about October, Nova and W. Murcott from November into February. The volume goes to Russia, Eastern Europe and the Gulf rather than west, where Spain and Morocco already hold the shelf.

Roughly January to April. Orri is a late, seedless, easy-peeling variety grown under licence, and it is one of the few pieces of fruit European supermarkets sell under its own name rather than under the retailer’s — which is the whole commercial logic of the window.