Spanish lemon crop to recover

Ailimpo's initial lemon harvest estimate (forecast) for the 2016/2017 season points toward a production figure in Spain of 980,000 tons, a 22% increase on the production balance in the 2015/2016 season, closing in August at 802,680 tons of lemons harvested.

With this data for the upcoming season nearly reaching 1.0 million tons, Spain recovers normal figures thanks to the effect of new plantations, though not reaching the potential crop of 1.2 million tons in consideration of the surface and planted trees. The reason can be found in the unusual weather conditions this year with no real winter but a very long spring.

Spain will continue consolidating its dominant position in the European market, where it is the undisputed leader with a market share of over 80%.

Lemon season will start during the month of September as usual, with harvest and export activity developing at good speed in October. Two main factors have to be considered as can determine the availability for the first limited lemons in September: the uncertainty surrounding the 

availability of water and the weather in August. Nonetheless conditions are quite good at this stage, with day and night-time temperatures contrasting.

The expected increase in the lemon harvest and return to normalcy will also enable to satisfy the growing demand of the domestic market and re-launch exports to third-country markets outside the EU such as the Middle East, Canada or Brazil, thus taking further steps in the diversification of markets that began some years ago. 

Moreover, an increasing trend is expected as well in the EU markets particularly in light of the Turkish lemons, which were listed by the European Commission (Regulation (EU) no 2016/443) as products that must comply with special border screening because of their recurrent failure to fulfill European legislation regarding pesticides, a situation that seriously affects the reliability of Turkish lemons and a key point that supermarket chains and European consumers should bear in mind.

This forecast will also enable the nomalize the lemon processing activity. Spain is currently ranked second worldwide in processing, which plays a key role in regulating the fresh market balance.