The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA) has made public its forecast for the 2021/2022 citrus campaign in a meeting held yesterday with representatives of the sector. According to its forecast, Spain will produce 6.705 million tons of citrus, i.e. 4 8% less than in the previous season and 2.1% less than the average of the last five years.
The greatest decrease in absolute terms will occur in small citrus fruits, and in percentage terms in lemon, which were the types of citrus that had the biggest increase in production in the past season. Grapefruit, on the other hand, will grow significantly, while the volume of oranges will remain stable (+ 0.4%).
The country will produce 3,511,079 tons of oranges, which will account for 52.4% of the total citrus production, and 73% of the oranges produced will correspond to the Navel group. The production of small citrus fruits will rise to 2,083,000 tons, accounting for 31% of the total. 51% of the small citrus produced will be clementines.
According to the Ministry's forecast, the country will harvest 1,011,458 tons of lemons (15% of the total production) and 84,010 tons of grapefruit (1.25%). In addition, Spain will produce 11,197 tons of other citrus fruits (including bitter orange), which will account for 0.17% of all citrus production.
Balance of the 2020/2021 campaign
According to the latest estimates, Spain produced 7.045 million tons of citrus in the 2020/2021 campaign, i.e. 12.6% more than in the 2019/2020 campaign and 6.2% more than the average of the previous five campaigns, ranking as the fourth-highest harvest.
Trade has continued to show great dynamism, both in terms of domestic consumption and exports. In the domestic market, there was an outstanding 11% increase in mandarin consumption.
Exports until June totaled 3.6 million tons, with a value of almost 3,400 million euro, i.e. 7.1% higher than the average of the last five seasons. The commercial balance is very positive, 3,208 million euro, with a coverage rate of 2.1%.
The lemon's good performance stands out. Despite the closure of the Horeca channel, lemon exports remained steady over the previous season and were 13% higher than the average of the five previous seasons. There was also a significant increase in grapefruit exports, which were 17.1% higher than the average of the last five years.
In this market context, in general, prices were above those of the five previous seasons, both in the field and when leaving the OP/processing plant, except in the case of lemon. Orange prices were the highest they've been in the last ten years. Mandarin prices were also high, especially in the final stretch of the season.