Rafael Peral also emphasised that the campaign has been characterised by a good development of the crop, with an acceptable flowering and setting in the spring, although the high temperatures and lack of rainfall have taken some toll on the expected final production. The Secretary General added that upcoming rains could help improve the fruit calibres.
By species, of the total citrus fruit production, 75% will correspond to sweet oranges (1,505,524 tonnes), 17% to mandarins (345,695 tonnes) and 6% to lemons (128,756 tonnes). Compared to the previous season, the sweet orange and mandarin harvests are expected to fall by 4.3% and 1.7%, respectively, while the lemon production will grow by 13%. At national level, the Andalusian orange production is expected to account for 47% of the domestic total; that of mandarins will account for 18% and that of lemons for 13% of the total.
Looking at individual provinces, in the 2017/2018 campaign, Seville is the main citrus producing province (792,576 tonnes), with 39% of the Andalusian production, followed by Huelva (523,173 tonnes). Together, both provinces account for 65% of Andalusia's citrus production. By species, Seville will be the biggest producer of sweet oranges, accounting for 47% of Andalusia's total, followed by Huelva. For mandarins, it will stand second, with 19% of the production. The province of Seville expects a 6% drop in the orange production and a considerable growth of the mandarin production (+19.2%). The total citrus fruit production is expected to fall by 3.8%.
For its part, Huelva will be the province with the largest mandarin production, with 57% of Andalusia's total volume, and with the second largest sweet orange production (21%). The forecasts highlight a 7.1% drop in the sweet orange production and a slight increase in the mandarin production (+3.4%).
Exports
In the 2016/17 campaign, Andalusia's production stood at 2.07 million tonnes, with 18% of that being exported. It has been revealed that, in recent years, the value of Andalusian citrus exports has maintained an upward trend, standing at around 290 million Euro in the 2016/17 season, with a marketed volume amounting to more than 370,000 tonnes.
By species, sweet orange exports from Andalusia reached 275,000 tonnes (184 million Euro), accounting for 17.5% of the production. As for mandarins, exports exceeded 50,000 tonnes (44 million Euro), which represented 14.3% of the production. Lastly, lemon exports amounted to 36,000 tonnes (50 million Euro), which corresponded to 31.2% of the production.
Another of the conclusions of this study is that the value of the production continues to grow, reaching in 2017 a total of 868 million Euro. Moreover, the demand for labour this campaign is estimated at 6.8 million wages, of which 4.4 million would correspond to production work and the rest to horticultural plants. The harvesting process would account for around 62% of the total.
