Lower production across the Mediterranean augurs well for the new season
Spanish citrus exporters are in buoyant mood as the 2025/26 campaign gets underway. Although the industry is facing its shortest crop in 16 years, quality is reportedly high, and with production in other Mediterranean countries like Turkey and Morocco also down, hopes are running high that supply will be more in line with demand and prices higher as a result.
“On paper this looks like it’s shaping up to be a very balanced campaign in terms of supply and demand,” says Nacho Juarez, citrus manager at Anecoop. “There are significant unknowns regarding external factors such as final market prices for juice, maritime logistics (although this affects Spain less than our competitors); and the expected final production volume from Turkey or Morocco, but at this stage, we think it will be a good season.”
Quico Peiró, director of operations at Cañamás Hermanos, agrees. “Despite the shorter crop, there are several reasons to be positive: Andalusia has practically recovered from last season’s drought and in the Valencian Community, growing conditions have been perfect following last year’s devastating floods. Overall, we expect to have more export-grade fruit than in recent years, allowing us to supply the market with complete normality,” he tells Fruitnet.
Marketing more than 100,000 tonnes of citrus a year, roughly two-thirds of which is grown on its own farms in Valencia and Andalusia, Cañamás is one of Spain’s leading private citrus companies. The company has just completed an extensive overhaul of its packhouse in Oliva, which the company says will bring about significant operational improvements in the coming season and allow it to provide its customers with “the best service, under the best conditions”.
The first new season clementines arrived in Cañamás’s Betxí facility at the end of September, closely followed by production further south in Oliva. Volumes are expected to be limited until early December due to localised hailstorms in Castellón and Valencia, where most of Spain’s clementines and mandarins are grown. As a result, prices at the time of going to press were well above last year’s levels for this point of the season.
However, Juarez points out that there is still plenty of South African citrus on the market, especially mandarins. “In Spain, price expectations are very high, but the start of the season has been slow,” he explains. “Some supermarkets will be stocking Southern Hemisphere and Spanish mandarins side by side and that could cool prices.”
For oranges, however, he says the campaign is expected to be very different from other years.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Spain’s 2025/26 citrus harvest is expected to weigh in at 5.44mn tonnes – 10.7 per cent lower than last year and 14.2 per cent down on the average for the last five seasons.
The decline is due to a combination of factors, principally excessive rainfall in spring, high temperatures during critical periods of fruit development, and hailstorms in various growing areas.
There will be significant declines in oranges, mandarins, and lemons. However, grapefruit production will reach a new record. Oranges, which make up around half of the total citrus crop, are expected to reach 2.72mn tonnes, 11.6 per cent or 356,300 tonnes less than in 2024/25. Within this category, 71 per cent are Navel varieties.
Soft citrus production will reach 1.73mn tonnes, 8.2 per cent of 154,100 tonnes less than last season and 14.1 per cent down on the five-year average. Soft citrus accounts for 31.9 per cent of Spain’s citrus output, with satsumas representing 5.4 per cent, clementines 52.2 per cent, and the rest made up of mandarins and hybrids.
Lemon production is expected to fall to 866,654 tonnes, 14.7 per cent or 149,400 tonnes lower than last season and 17.3 per cent less than the five-year average. Within this category, Fino accounts for 77.3 per cent of production and Verna for 22.1 per cent.
Grapefruit is the only category that bucks the downward trends, with production forecast to grow 8 per cent to 107,902 tonnes. This is 26.4 per cent above the five-year average and makes it record campaign for the third consecutive year.
“This will be the fourth consecutive season in which output is below 6mn tonnes – and the decline comes in spite of Spain’s total planted area remaining steady at around 300,000ha,” says analyst Paco Borrás.
He notes that there has been a big shift regional production. “At the end of the last century, Valencia was home to 66 per cent of Spain’s citrus acreage, with Andalusia accounting for 21 per cent, Murcia 11 per cent and Catalonia 2 per cent. Today, Valencia’s share has gone down to 46 per cent, while acreage in Andalusia and Murcia have risen to 38 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, and Catalonia is on 2 per cent,” he says.
Much of the decrease in Valencia is due to the loss of small plots of less than 1ha, while the growth in Andalusia is mainly represented by larger plantings of more than 12ha.
There has also been a notable varietal shift in the past 25 years. Oranges have remained broadly stable, making up between 48 and 50 per cent of total output, whereas mandarins now account for 32 per cent of total output, down from 37 per cent at the turn of the century. The big winners have been lemons (up from 13 per cent to 16 per cent) and grapefruit, which today accounts for 2 per cent of total citrus production, up from just 0.5 per cent in 2000.
With spring frosts slashing Turkish citrus production by between 20 and 40 per cent this year, Morocco expecting a lower harvest and a big question mark hanging over how much of the Egyptian crop will be diverted to processing following the major investments in juicing facilities in that country, hopes are running high amongst Spanish producers that prices will be better in 2025/26 than last year.
Borrás is more guarded, however. “The official line is that a smaller harvest means better prices, but there are so many factors that can influence how the market develops that the truth is I have no idea what will happen!”
