Spain’s lemon sector completed the 2010/11 season on 31 August with a total production figure of 930,000 tonnes, which national lemon association Ailimpo said was “moderately positive” in sales terms.
Although the association said volumes were in line with totals for the season before last, Ailimpo president Rafael Sánchez said they did mark a 36 per cent improvement compared with the 2009/10 campaign, which was affected by poor weather conditions.
In fact, the good weather experienced during the most recent season led to considerably more lemons being produced than the initial forecast of 810,000 tonnes.
In sales terms, Sánchez said the Fino lemon season suffered a “difficult” start in October 2010 due to a shortage of suitably sized Spanish fruit and strong competition from Turkey.
The second half of the campaign proved little better, with the problematic economic situation across the whole of Europe leading to “market difficulties”.
By contrast, Sánchez said the Verna lemon season, which started in early April, developed in a far more “positive and fluid” form, as good production levels and excellent quality in Spain enabled exporters to better compete with Southern Hemisphere imports.
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