Sumo Citrus harvest is the most wonderful time of the year. After months of anticipation pining for your favorite fruit, Sumo Citrus returns to stores each January. It’s a short but very sweet season, available only through April. Our Super Fans know to wait for the official word that Sumo Citrus is in stores (or stalk their local produce aisle to be the first to grab them) and stock up while they can.

What makes this exciting moment possible? Harvest time, which takes place each winter.

When our expert Sumo Citrus growers start to see color break in the late fall (click here to learn about that step in the growing cycle), they get ready for action.

A few weeks after the fruit turns from green to orange, it is ready for harvest, and the farm teams head out into the groves of Sumo Citrus trees.

Sumo Citrus is unlike any other citrus because not only is it the most difficult citrus to grow, it is the most delicate to harvest. Sumo Citrus requires a unique approach that centers gentle care at every step to ensure that the fruit does not get bruised or damaged along the way. Our growers and harvest teams are highly skilled, detailed, and precise, and their decades of experience have informed and continue to guide the harvest process each season.

How is Sumo Citrus Harvested?

Hand-picked into Small Totes for Safety
Most citrus varieties are harvested in big bins, but not Sumo Citrus. Each Sumo Citrus is carefully hand picked from the Sumo Citrus trees and placed into small totes to keep them protected from the weight of too many pieces of fruit. 

Hand-packed and Fully Pampered
After being hand-picked from the Sumo Citrus tree, every single piece of Sumo Citrus is gently cleaned, floated down the line, packed by hand into each crate, and stored at our state-of-the-art packing facility. It’s like a spa treatment for citrus – we don’t call it the world’s most pampered fruit for nothing!

Measured for Perfection
Each perfectly imperfect piece of Sumo Citrus is tested for optimal sweetness and only those that meet our high standards make it to stores. We use a tool called a “Brix meter” to measure the sugar content of the fruit before it ships out. The resulting value gives our team important information about the taste, quality, and nutritional density of each piece of Sumo Citrus.

Carefully Transported
Even their ride to your local grocery store is extra cushy because Sumo Citrus is transported with air bags in the trailers to protect them. After such a careful harvest process, we don’t want them to be damaged en route to your local store, so they cruise in comfort.   

The care continues in stores once the world’s most loved fruit begins to show up in retailers across the country. Though we have seen some of the most incredible in-store displays – towers of Sumo Citrus that look like majestic mountains of purple and orange fanfare – each crate and bag still fits only enough citrus to ensure it is still protected. 

Once you get home, if you don’t devour your stash immediately (and we would understand if you did) we recommend channeling the same TLC as our growers and retailers do throughout harvest each year. That means: Don’t pile your Sumo Citrus up high! Keep them in the fridge or on the counter with a bit of space between them to retain the perfect flavor profile.

Then keep that stash stocked and enjoy them all season long. Happy Sumo Season!