This season's notable fall in citrus production has been offset by prices that have defended the value of exports against the drastic drop in volumes traded.
The production decreased by 15%, which means there were 420,000 tons less citrus in this campaign than in the previous one. As a result of this decrease, Spain went from exporting 1,143,717 tons of oranges from September to March of the previous season to 951,153 tons of oranges in the same period of this season; meanwhile, mandarin exports have gone from 740,394 to 589,957 tons this year.
However, prices have increased by 19% and, as a result -according to the citrus sector's foreign trade report with data until March-, citrus exports during this campaign (since September 2022) have amounted to 2,740 million euro; a higher number than the 2,713 million euro achieved in the same period last year.
Sales of the main orange varieties between September 2022 and March of this year amounted to 809 million euro. In the same period of the previous season, they totaled 823 million euro. This decline stands at 2%, while in November (the third month of the season) the drop reached 26%. In fact, in the first three months of the year, there have been advances of 7%, 3%, and 11% in volume.
Mandarin exports have achieved a similar result although with a different evolution. In March, the value of mandarin exports in this campaign was 5% lower than in the same period of last year.
In November and December, which are the best-selling months, there were increases of 5% and 3% while during this year (in some months in which volumes are traditionally low) there were decreases of 25% to 38%.
Source: economiadigital.es