The EU produced 6.5 million tonnes, exported 2.7 million tonnes and imported 1.1 million tonnes of oranges

The climate requirements for oranges mean that production is limited to a few EU member countries.

 

 

 

According to Eurostat, EU member countries harvested 6.5 million tonnes of oranges in 2018. This is the highest production level since 2010 and supported by the record harvest in Spain (3.6 million tonnes of oranges, or 56% of the EU total). In addition to Spain, the other main producing countries were Italy (1.6 million tonnes, or 24% of the EU total) and Greece (0.9 million tonnes, or 14% of the total of the EU).

 

 

 

Almost 274,000 hectares of oranges were cultivated in 2018, with just over half of this total area in Spain (140,000 hectares). Italy counted 83,000 hectares or 30% of the EU total, and Greece 32,000 hectares, or 12% of the EU total.

 

 

 

Nearly 2.7 million tonnes of oranges, worth 1.9 billion euros, were exported by the Member States in 2018. The vast majority of these exports (2.3 million tonnes, or 88% of the total) were exchanged between Member States. Spain exported the most oranges to third countries (161,000 tonnes, or 51% of exports from outside the EU).

 

 

 

The EU imported 1.1 million tonnes of oranges, worth 0.7 billion euros, from third countries in 2018. About 3/4 of these imports came from either South Africa South (465,000 tonnes, or 43% of the extra-EU total) or Egypt (328,000 tonnes, 30%).

 

 

 

Other oranges' imports came from Morocco (89,000 tonnes, 8%), Argentina (44,000 tonnes, 4%), Zimbabwe (39,000 tonnes, almost 4%), Turkey (29,000 tonnes, 3%) and Uruguay (27,000 tonnes, 2%).