Argentina is talking about a 42-55% drop in production due to last year's freezes, so less produce will be exported.
Giuseppe (Pippo) Campisi, coordinator of the Lemon Committee of the Organizzazione interprofessionale Ortofrutta Italia and Fruitimprese advisor, was interviewed on the effects this will have on the domestic market.
"Lemons are produced mainly in Sicily and Calabria. The 2013/14 campaign went well, as 600,000 tons of produce were harvested, but we had to compete with Spain, which had lower prices. In addition, in order to supply only the lemons of the highest quality, we had to destine a lot of produce to the processing industry."
The Spanish price trend (Euro/100kg) in 2012 (yellow), 2013 (grey) and 2014 (blue). Source: Ismea.
"Our lemons are not really affected by competition from Argentina, but rather by Spain, as it has lower costs. The fact that the summer campaign isn't expected to be as good as the previous years complicates things further as "lemon plants are very clever and, if they produced a lot in autumn-winter, they will grow less fruits in the summer."
"Summer prices will definitely increase because of the lack of Argentinian produce, provided that South African lemons are not allowed to enter the EU (which we hope, to avoid the transmission of the Citrus Black Spot virus). This increase though will not be to the advantage of producers, as there will not be enough fruit to cover costs."
Below chat in Italian
Quotation trend for 58/67 primofiore lemons on the main Italian wholesale markets (15th and 16th week) - click here to enlarge. Source: Ismea.
Italian lemons are sold mainly to domestic retailers, Germany and Austria. Lately, the produce has also been sold to France, Czech Republic and Eastern Europe.
