This data, obtained from the information provided by the main producing autonomous regions, means an overall increase of 0.4% compared to the last campaign, but it is 14.4% below the average of the last five years. It will be the second shortest harvest of the last 11 years, after last year’s campaign.
The drought and extreme weather conditions have been determining factors in this production volume, basically due to the scarcity of water, the abnormally high temperatures recorded during the flowering and fruit setting phases and to the heat waves in subsequent stages that have caused irrigation restrictions in some regions.
By product, 2.643 million tonnes of oranges will be produced, meaning 8.2% less than the previous campaign and almost 24 % (-832.000 tonnes) below the last five-year average, redounding in last year’s decrease.
Oranges, as is normal, will be the citrus fruit with the largest production, making up 45.9 % of the total, although it will lose almost six percentage points compared to the average. 72% of these oranges will correspond to the Navel group.
The production of small citrus fruit will rise to 1,853 million tonnes, an amount that is virtually the same as last year’s figure, but 12.7% below the last five-year average. This produce will make up 32.2% of total citrus fruit. Satsumas will represent 4.3% of this group; clementines 54% and other mandarins and hybrids, 41.7%.
Lemon production, after last year’s drop in production, will recover and will reach 1,167,444 tonnes, meaning a production record. This figure is 28% more than the previous harvest, and 13% above the last five-year average.
In the case of grapefruit, with a forecast of 79,582 tonnes, they will also have a larger harvest than last year (+2 %), as well as being above the average (+2.4 %), although this increase will be more moderate.
Making these harvest forecasts available to the sector at the beginning of the campaign is a significant advance in the improvement of the information that this Ministry has been providing for the sector since 2019, and it equips the sector with better means for making decisions.
During the meeting, there was also a review of the support measures that the Ministry has started up to sustain the sector related both with the negative effects of the Ukraine war, and the drought and that have allowed around 75 million euros in direct aid alone to be injected directly into the citrus growers’ economies.
Once again, with the presentation of the capacity report, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food is strengthening its information systems to the sector and it is up-dating its commitment to this segment, both regarding transparency, and solvency and feasibility, acquired in the plan of measures to improve the citrus fruit growing sector adopted in April, 2019.
Spain is the leading citrus fruit producer in the European Union and the sixth in the world. The exported production reaches an average value per campaign of 3,300 million euros, turning Spain into the top marketer of fresh citrus fruit in the world, with 25% of global exports.
