According to its National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI), Tunisian citrus production in the 2022/2023 season is expected to drop by 16% to 290,000 tons, from 345,300 tons the previous season. The average production of citrus fruits over the past five years stood at 387,400.
This drop is explained by several factors including adverse weather conditions during the flowering and fruit setting periods of citrus and rising temperatures in May and June. This is also due to the 2.6% decrease in the area of citrus fruits in the 2021/2022 season, compared to the 2020/2021 season.
The decline will be recorded in the production of most varieties. The production of Maltese oranges will be down by 23.5% to 71,000 tons compared to 92,800, Clementines by 15%, Mandarins by 18%, Thomson oranges by 7.1% and Lemon by 23.5%. The drop-off will affect most production sites including the governorate of Nabeul, where production is expected to reach 200,600 tons during this season, against 241,000 tons in the season 2021/2022, down 16.8%.
Source: en.africanmanager.com