When we talk about importing citrus for processing, there’s a lot more that goes into it than just “unboxing and turning into juice” — and that’s where Citrus Processing Solutions (CPS) comes in, since I’ve been running this side of the business for 12+ years. A lot of folks in the fresh fruit space think processing imported citrus is just scaling up, but no — imports have their own whole set of quirks, different from local fruit, and we’ve had to tweak our workflow so many times to get it right. Citrus Processing Solutions
Let me start with why imported citrus isn’t the same as what’s grown 50 miles away. Most imports come from places like Spain, South Africa, Mexico, or Brazil — where growing seasons are reversed, harvest timelines don’t line up with North American or European local crops, and they’re shipped 2 to 6 weeks depending on the route. That means when we unload a container of oranges or lemons, they’re already ripening faster than if we’d harvested them ourselves, and sometimes they’ve got dust or minor scratches from cross-country shipping. So our first step isn’t even running them through a processing line — it’s a 24-hour holding period in temperature-controlled rooms.
Wait, temperature control sounds basic, but let me break that down. For most citrus, ideal holding temp is between 34°F and 38°F, and we use modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) adapted for bulk containers, too. When a fruit’s shipped, the container’s atmosphere is mostly oxygen and nitrogen, but as soon as we bring it into our warehouse, we bump the CO2 level up a little — like 5% instead of the usual 2% — to slow down respiration. We also check each pallet for “freezer burn” spots if a unit’s temp accidentally dropped too low during transport, or mold that might’ve started in a damp container. I’ve seen importers skip this step, and they end up with 15% of a load spoiled before it even hits the washer — that’s thousands of dollars lost, and we’ve built our whole system to eliminate that.
Next, sorting. People always ask why we don’t just run every piece through the same line — but imported citrus has more size and blemish variety than local, because growing conditions vary more across farms. We use a combination of optical sorters and hand-sorting lanes for the odd pieces. The optical sorters do two big things: first, they size the fruit so we can group small, medium, and large separately — small ones might go into marmalade or frozen zest, medium into juice, and large ones into fresh-cut wedges. Second, they scan for internal defects too — like hidden black rot that doesn’t show on the skin — using near-infrared tech. Hand-sorting is still non-negotiable for us, because optical sorters sometimes miss soft, bruised spots that turn into mold during processing, and we don’t want that in our final products.
Once sorted, it’s washing. I know, washing citrus sounds simple, but imported fruit has a layer of natural bloom that’s important to keep — some processors strip it off with harsh chemicals, but we use a 100% food-grade alkaline wash first, then a rinse with ozone water. Why ozone? It kills 99.9% of surface bacteria without leaving a residue, which is a big deal for organic citrus imports. A lot of our customers are organic brands, so we can’t use chlorine-based washes — that’s a rule we’ve had to nail down because importers often ship organic fruit, and cutting corners here would lose us those contracts. Also, we add a small amount of food-grade wax back after washing for any fruit going into fresh-cut, to keep moisture in, but only if it’s allowed per organic standards.
Then core processing — this is the part people see on juice commercials, but for imports, we adjust based on fruit ripeness. For example, South African lemons shipped in winter are more acidic than local California lemons, so when we make lemon juice concentrate, we tweak the sugar-to-acid ratio by 3% max, using natural citrus syrup (not artificial) so it doesn’t taste off. For oranges, if a load came from Brazil, which is known for sweet, low-acid fruit, we might blend in a small batch of slightly more acidic Florida oranges to balance it, since a lot of our juice customers want a consistent flavor year-round. That’s a big one for imports — since you can’t get the same fruit every month, blending is how we keep product quality steady.
Pulp handling is another area where imports are trickier. Sometimes imported oranges have thicker pith, which gets left in the pulp, making it bitter. We use a centrifugal pulper that spins at a lower speed for these fruits — like 3,000 RPM instead of 4,500 — so it separates the juice from the pulp without chopping up the pith. We also sift the pulp twice, once with a 1mm screen and once with a 0.5mm screen, to get that smooth texture customers want. I’ve had importers come to us with pulp that was too gritty because they used a generic pulper, and we had to rework the whole batch to fix it — that’s why we customize every line for the specific load we get, not just run a preset.
Then there’s peel and zest processing. A lot of processors throw peel away, but at CPS, we turn it into animal feed supplement and citrus oil, which is a side income for customers. Imported citrus peel can be thicker than local, so we use a different peel cutter — one with serrated blades instead of smooth — that grinds it into uniform pieces for drying. Citrus oil is extracted from the peel using cold pressing, and for imports, we have to adjust the pressure because the peel’s oil content varies: Spanish oranges have more oil than Mexican ones, so we lower the press pressure by 10 PSI for the Spanish fruit to avoid breaking the cells too much and getting a bitter oil. That’s a detail that makes our processing stand out — we don’t treat every load the same, even if they’re all oranges.
Storage post-processing is also key for imports. Since we’re handling fruit that could be 8 weeks old from harvest, we need to make sure our finished products don’t go bad before they ship to the customer. Juice concentrate goes into insulated tanks at 0°F, and fresh-cut wedges go into modified atmosphere bags with 5% CO2 and 10% oxygen, same as the holding rooms. We also do a 48-hour shelf-life test on every new import load before we scale up — if a wedge only lasts 5 days instead of 7, we adjust the wash or wax step immediately. A few years back, we had a load of lemons from Argentina that had a higher moisture content, so we added a 10-minute air-dry step to the line, and that doubled the shelf-life — we almost missed that because we were used to lemons from Italy.
Now, let’s talk about the pitfalls we’ve fixed over the years. One big one was import paperwork delays. Importers sometimes forget that citrus has phytosanitary certificates, and if it’s missing, the load gets held at the port for a week. We’ve worked with a logistics firm that specializes in agricultural imports, so they give us a heads-up 3 days before a load arrives, and we get the processing line ready early — no downtime. Another pitfall is uneven ripening in a single container. Sometimes one pallet is ready for processing, another is still hard, so we have a buffer zone in our holding area where we can hold those hard pieces for 2 more days instead of running them through early and ruining the batch.
I know a lot of small processors try to handle imported fruit, but they skip these tweaks. They use a one-size-fits-all line, ignore the shipping history, and end up with low-quality product that doesn’t sell. At CPS, we’ve been doing this for enough different origins (Spain, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt, even Turkey) that we’ve built a library of processing specs for each one. Like, for Egyptian tangerines, we lower the washing temp by 2°F because they have a thinner skin that’s prone to breaking in hot water; for Mexican limes, we add a vinegar rinse (food-grade, of course) to cut down on the bitter aftertaste that comes from their more acidic skin.
If you’re an importer who’s tired of losing money to spoiled fruit, or your processed product is inconsistent, let’s chat. We don’t do generic processing — every load gets a custom plan based on where it came from, how it was shipped, and what your end product needs. No generic settings, no skipping the small steps, just processing that’s tailored to your imported citrus. Reach out to our team to set up a consultation, and we can walk you through how we’d handle your next container, no jargon, just real solutions that work.
Citrus Processing Solutions References
- Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute. (2021). Post-Harvest Handling of Imported Citrus Fruits for Processed Products.
- Journal of Food Processing and Preservation. (2022). Effects of Modified Atmosphere Storage on Imported Citrus Shelf Life.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2023). Food Safety Guidelines for Fresh and Processed Imported Citrus.
- International Society of Citriculture. (2020). Optimization of Processing Lines for Geographically Diverse Citrus Imports.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2022). Use of Ozone in Fruit Washing for Organic Processed Products.
Shanghai Chase Industrial Co., Ltd.
Shanghai Chase Industrial Co., Ltd. is one of the most professional citrus processing solutions manufacturers and suppliers in China, featured by quality products and good price. Please rest assured to buy high capacity citrus processing solutions from our factory. Customized orders are welcome.
Address: No. 18, Liushijing Road, Kunshan Development Zone, Jiangsu Province
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