Eight out of ten lemons consumed, from Perpignan to Helsinki, are shipped by Murcia, and this will remain so until well into the summer. The excellent regional harvest and the lobbying of the interprofessional organisation Ailimpo in Brussels have succeeded in preventing access to the EU market of Turkish and Argentinian lemons until the harvest is completed, most probably in July.
There are still almost 360,000 tonnes of Fino lemons (winter variety) to be marketed and the harvest volume of the Verna (spring variety) is expected to double to 230,000 tonnes. The average price at origin remains at around 30 cents per kilo, above the average of previous years at this time and more than double the cost of Fino lemons, which cost 14 cents.
The current campaign kicked off in October with the worst possible prospects. A month earlier, Argentina, Chile and South Africa had dumped their last stocks on the European market and the Spanish capacity had increased substantially compared to the 2015/2016 season, when they achieved the best prices in history (up to 1 Euro per kilo). "There was a lot of euphoria in the sector and we had to strive for a soft landing, to return to normal," explains José Antonio García, director of Ailimpo.
The interprofessional applied two tactics: on the one hand, to ask Murcia's exporters (who control 80% of the Spanish lemon market) to prevent saturating the EU market with the first harvests and, on the other, to block the Turkish competitors. In this regard, Ailimpo managed before last summer to get the European Commission to issue a regulation that included Anatolian lemon in the list of foods with phytosanitary residues.
Thus, 10% of the Turkish trucks carrying lemons that crossed the borders of Greece and Bulgaria had to be inspected. At the beginning of the campaign, the number of batches rejected multiplied and EU trade chains took note. In the face of the loss of customers, exporters from the Asian country chose to redirect their sales to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East, so the price at origin in Murcia remained between 70 and 40 cents per kilo in the first weeks of the campaign.
As early as January, Brussels tightened the conditions and raised random inspections to 20% of trucks. Turkish lemons have since disappeared from EU supermarkets, leaving a free field to Murcia's companies. "We could say that Ailimpo is currently not very popular in Turkey. We have been threatened in every way," states José Antonio García.
There remains another rival: Argentina. That country suffered the disappointment of seeing Donald Trump restore the veto on its lemons that his predecessor had lifted, so there was the threat of it redirecting its entire production to the European Union.
The moderation in the flow of sales on the part of Murcia's exporters will make it possible for the Fino lemon harvest to be extended until April, when the Verna variety will take over, having doubled its capacity compared to last year. Exports can thus be extended until July, leaving no gap for Argentina. Ailimpo recalled that, in any case, this country is not interested in selling to EU countries while there are still lemons from Murcia available, since prices would fall and would fail to cover the freight costs.
"Argentina has confirmed that it will limit its campaign to just eight weeks. It will start selling to Russia and will only do so in Europe between July and August, when no Spanish lemons are left," stressed the director of Ailimpo.
Source: laverdad.es
