Banana: The years pass and are not at all the same! The performance of the European banana market in January 2005 was as good as it was catastrophic in 2004. Demand remained at a healthy level. However, the increase of more than 15% in quay prices in France in comparison with the three-year average should be ascribed above all to a 7% decrease in supplies to Europe, all origins being counted. Avocado: The balance was comparatively satisfactory. The market for Hass was not supplied generously (shortfalls in arrivals from Mexico and Spain and Israeli supplies concentrated on the UK market) and rapidly emerged from the crisis of the end of December. The return to a balanced situation was much more laborious for the green varieties and was only achieved at the cost of a voluntary reduction of exports from Israel. Orange: The critical situation for easy peelers weighed heavily on the orange market. Sales were down by nearly 30% in comparison with average levels and prices lost about 4%. All varieties were affected from Naveline/Navel from Spain to Maltese from Tunisia, whose season started in the middle of the month. The announcement of serious losses, especially of Navelate, after the frost that hit Spain in Week 4 caused the beginnings of a reversal of the market situation. Grapefruit: The very high prices did not prevent demand from waking up at the beginning of the month-as every year. In addition, the very marked supply shortfall since the beginning of the winter season has worsened even though fairly large volumes were shipped from Israel. Florida exporters have favoured the Japanese market at the expense of the EU. In this context, the price of Florida fruits was raised. In contrast, those of fruits from other origins remained stable. Easy peelers: Another extremely poor performance. The large quantities of Spanish clementine remaining to be shifted prevented any rise in price and caused serious positioning problems for all the other varieties (Clemenvilla from Sp