The paper gives an essence of citrus exporting countries namely South Africa and Morocco to the supermarket chains of the United Kingdom. The journey of the citrus fruit, right from the growers farm to the customers place in the UK, is discussed in this paper. It also presents an overview and background of citrus market in both the countries of origin covering the present post-harvest handling including sorting, grading and packaging, logistics and traceability. It captures the Business-to-Business (B2B) and ethical trade issues concerning the supply chain along with recommendations for growth.

Bongiswa Mahlanza, a South African Agricultural Economist, said, "In the past, the big fish used to eat the small fish. Now things have changed: the fast fish eat the slow fish. They hatch and spread everywhere, in the North and in the South; in the East and in the West." This change was apparent in all segments of economy during the last one decade. This can be seen in the following :South Africa has been a witness to change in a way that no other country has experienced in the last one decade both politically and economically.

South African economy has 4% contribution from the agricultural sector to the total GDP, and employs 10% of the population earning 20% of the foreign exchange annually. It is also the second largest exporter of fruits and vegetables in the Southern hemisphere after Chile (Figure 1). Citrus fruit production observe a three fold increase in the 1990s. Citrus is grown in the Northern province of Mpumalanga, Northwest Province, KwaAulu/Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Citrus farms size ranges from 0.5ha to 500ha and some even up to 6000ha. Citrus industry gives good employment opportunities to the disadvantaged black farming community.

South Africa's citrus production grew by 2% in 2005-06 and grown in about 53,977 ha with 2.1 million MT. Though South Africa is the 12th largest producer of citrus, it is the World's 2nd largest exporter of citrus after Spain. The total exports are about 1.38 million MT, about 65% of its total production (Mabiletsa, 2006).

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