The 2023-2024 campaign is proving challenging for Spanish lemons, with prices at the edge of profitability. This year has seen a trend change in the production available in Spain, with an increase of around 35% in the supply compared to the previous campaign. According to the forecast published by Ailimpo at the start of the campaign, this season’s production in Spain is expected to reach 1.365 million metric tonnes (MMT) and even exceed the 1.300 MMT of the 2018/2019 season.

The lemon market remains under pressure at origin due to the increase in the harvest of Fino lemons. The market demand is unable to absorb the harvest, so there is still a significant number of lemons on the trees. Moreover, the higher number of fruits per tree and the alarming lack of rainfall have resulted in a predominance of small calibres, below size 58, which are not as appreciated in the market.

Eyes are now turning to the Verna lemon campaign, for which the harvest is expected to start earlier, considering the quality and high discard rate of the Fino lemons. Forecasts point to a long Verna  campaign, with limited room for southern hemisphere lemons this summer.

After several years with low harvests, the production of Verna lemons is expected to be about five times larger this year. Prices are not expected to recover with the arrival of the Verna, given the large production, but the campaign is expected to last at least until the end of July. South Africa and Argentina will face significant challenges in supplying lemons to Europe at the beginning of this summer, as there will be enough Spanish lemons.

The production is high not only in Spain. Other countries that compete with Spain, like Türkiye, also have large volumes this campaign after several years of low harvests, and Italy, Greece, and Egypt also have a greater supply. For this reason, although the demand for lemons is at the usual level, the large supply in the markets keeps pushing prices down.

Spain is the world leader in organic lemons. Spanish lemon producers champion organic farming not only in the European Union but Spain has become the world leader in organic cultivated areas ahead of Italy, Argentina, and the United States. This in turn allows the Spanish sector to be a benchmark in the marketing of organic lemon, juice, and essential oil.

The area of organic lemons in the world reached 29,301 hectares in 2022, of which 11,509 hectares were located in Spain, which means that 40% of the organic lemons produced in the world come from Spain.