Banana: Although the quantity of bananas exported to Europe is still not significantly greater, these fruits have nonetheless contributed to making the market more fragile as a result of the competition between an increasing number of operators of very varying sizes. Thus prices have been gradually lowered in spite of satisfactory local demand and a marked deficit in supplies from Africa and the West Indies. Avocado: Record performance with insufficient quantities available during a good period for avocado as demand is very strong for Easter promotion operations in supermarkets. But supplies remained painfully short as the season was over in Israel, Spain was concentrating on wholesale channels and Mexico suffered logistic problems. So the surprise avocado at Easter was mainly green and Kenyan. Prices rose to levels previously unseen during the Easter promotion period. Orange: Performance was fairly mediocre. Although demand had been brisk at the beginning of the month it was very disappointing from the Easter weekend onwards (school holidays, competition from strawberries). In addition, the pressure of Spanish 'Navelate' production continued to block the development of sales of fruits from other origins (Morocco) and other varieties ('Valencia' from Spain). Prices displayed a slight downward trend and were at the usual level for the season. Grapefruit: Demand finally turned to Israel as the small Florida season had ended and the quality of the fruits from Turkey was very uneven. Nevertheless, pressure from Turkey was still intense with very large shipments (178% up on the average), causing prices to worsen. Thus, in spite of an overall supply deficit of some 50% in comparison with the average, prices were a disappointing 10% lower than average. Litchi: Supplies to the European market were light in April and shipped from Thailand alone. The marketing season for this origin started in the second half of March with batches sent mainly to the Netherlands. Distribution