The origin of grapefruits is not very certain; some authors state that it is a natural crossing between the sweet orange and the citron fruit (more tropical citrus) that took place in Barbados, in the Western Indies, towards the year 1700. It is thought that the seeds of the citron fruit were introduced by an English captain called Philip Shaddock in 1649, although there were no references of this fruit until 1823.

Grapefruits are produced in tropical and tempered areas and harvested during winter. The production is intended for fresh consumption or the processing of jam and juice. The world production is around 4,700,000 tons, whereas the European production reaches 49,000 tons.

The following table shows the world production data:

COUNTRY	PRODUCTIÓN(thousand tons)		%
	1998	1999
Africa	370	376	8
Asia	1,018	996	21
Europe	49	49	1
North America	2,993	2,922	61
Oceania	21	21
South America	422	418	9
TOTAL	4,873	4,782	100

The United States is the world leader in production, accounting for 50% of the production, of which approximately 45% is intended for consumption in fresh. Other important producers are Argentina, Cuba, Cyprus, Israel, Mexico, Mozambique and South Africa.

The ten main exporters of citruses, among which the grapefruit is included, appart from oranges, tangelos (grapefruit and mandarin hybrid) and mandarins are:

COUNTRY	EXPORTS
	tons 1998	Thousand $ 1998
United States	388,099	195,673
Israel	130,500	65,320
The Netherlands	113,444	62,990
Belgium-Luxembourg	86,345	51,996
South Africa	76,000	37,860
Turkey	42,018	19,730
Argentina	27,224	12,665
Cyprus	26,283	10,154
Suazilandia	22,000	5,500
Spain	21,323	11,361

Export of other citruses)
Source: FAO Trade Yearbook, 1998.

We can observe the difference between the United States exports and the rest of the main exporting countries among which we find Israel, one of the main suppliers for Europe. It is surprising how Nordic countries such as The Netherlands and Benelux are among the main exporting countries. This is because they are ‘reexporting’ countries, that is to say, they are entrance and redistribution ports in Europe.

In Spain, grapefruit consumption is not very significant, although it increases. The main destiny for grapefruits produced in Spain is the European market, where they value the quality of the grapefruits from Alicante, Murcia and Valencia. In the last few years, Andalusian provinces such as Seville, Malaga and Almeria have increased the production of this bitter fruit with a view to the European markets.

The main grapefruit import country is Japan, with a certain difference with respect to the second one as far as volume of import, as shown in the following table:

COUNTRY	IMPORTS
	Thousand tons 1999	thousand $ 1999
Japan	262,416	233,645
France	134,190	77,519
The Netherlands	133,577	71,325
Belgium-Luxembourg	107,711	55,627
Germany	85,409	48,764
United Kingdom	75,813	39,547
Canada	58,818	29,805
China	40,375	22,583
Italy	37,019	18,717
Poland	31,484	12,793