Apples & Oranges

Among the great mysteries of this world is why the supermarkets never have any good fruit. Especially citrus.

I mean, all I want is an orange. But supermarkets don't stock good oranges. What they have are horrible, rotten Class II ones that shouldn't even be out on the shop floor for sanitation reasons.

Bananas, I know, are picked still green - they get ripe on the boat and then look very nice once they arrive. (Less so this year because the EU import quota for bananas was met by August...) Is there a reason why the same thing can't be done with oranges?

Apples, though, are not as much of a problem. Even the ones that come from faraway places, like China or South Africa. Admittedly apples are often covered in wax and other preservatives, but hey, they can just go ahead and do the same to oranges.

It's not that the shops can't get the oranges up here quickly enough (it all goes through Rotterdam anyway) - it's that they never stock anything better than Class II. I don't get it.