Citrus production in Southern hemisphere and export forecasts

According to the data released by  Freshfel Europe and SHAFFE, the citrus production in the Southern Hemisphere countries includes in the survey should reach for 2010 a level of 6.24 million tons, an increase of 0.5 % compared to last year.

These figures are however to be analysed in more details to take into account variation of production in the different growing areas and the particular situation by product. Peru (2.3%), South Africa (5%) and Uruguay  (11.6%) are all expected to record production increases compared to the previous season, while production is set to fall in both Argentina (-4%) and Australia (-6%).

On this bases, the production of oranges and mandarins are both expected to rise, by 5.8% and 8.8% respectively, while lemon and grapefruit production are both expected to decline significantly, by 10.8% and 6.4% respectively.

Source : European Fresh Produce Association.