We're at that time of year when we're in between citrus crops; those we normally get from Florida and California are not yet available for market. What we've been offered for the past month or so is South African oranges and grapefruits.

There's a vast difference between the citrus coming from those two sources. If we had the option of Jaffa oranges and other fruits from that source there would be no problem; they're every bit as good and sometimes better, than their American counterparts. But fruit from Israel is seldom seen at market here in this area.

So we've had to make do with South African fruits, the only available right now. There are, it's true, some citrus fruits available at market coming from South America, from Morocco too, but that source is few and far between and again, not the quality of the citrus from the United States.

The fruit from South Africa is of inferior quality, decidedly, in comparison to Florida and California oranges and grapefruits. The south African varieties are hard, both difficult to cut and to eat. They are not uniformly sweet. Whereas one can easily scoop the interior of American citrus, you cannot with the South African; the pith and section fibres are wasted in the latter, appreciated and readily edible in the former.

We can complain, and we do, but there's not much we can do about it, other than wait for the Florida and California fruit to come to season for harvesting and distribution to markets like ours.