Argentina: Hopes for sweet 2023 after bitter 2022 lemon season

For 2023 lemon producers in Argentina, a leading lemon exporting country, hope to focus on input cost savings, better shipping prices and markets that will reward them fairly. 2022 was a bitter year for the Argentinian lemon sector. This was especially due to a more than 100% increase in logistics costs. Nothing has been easy, they say; the prices on the market were among the lowest in the last three years. Producers said they lost money.

A producer in Tucuman, the main lemon production area in Argentina, will focus more on organic lemons to meet the growing demand in the US market. Producers hope to fully recover in 2023 after the losses last season.

They also aim to cooperate more closely with Spain to ensure markets are not oversupplied and that prices remain stable. Tucuman producers are also in close contact with Spain to meet any late season shortfall this European country might have.

Regarding exports to the European Union, according to data shared by the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain, between January and October 2022, shipments of Argentine lemons to the community market recovered compared to the same period in 2021, increasing by 13% and totaling 120,172 tons.

However, data up to the month of October shows South Africa “displacing Argentina as the first supplier and increasing its share by 16 points” until reaching a market share in this period of 47.5%. In fact, the South African country has “almost doubled its volumes (+87.7%, +95,500t) compared to the average while imports from Argentina have fallen by 10.5% (-14,000 t), losing just over 11 points of market share, remaining at 28%.”

This decrease in shipments is more evident in September and October, the first two months of the 2022/23 Spanish campaign, in which Argentina registered a significant year-on-year drop of 77.8% (53.5% if one takes into account counts the average of the last five campaigns) from the more than 38,000 tons shipped in those months of 2021 to the little more than 8,400 counted this season, according to the latest report of enhanced monitoring of citrus imports into the EU issued monthly by the Spanish ministry.

The fruit market is an important part of commercial relations between South America and Europe and naturally, events such as Fruit Logistica have captured the public’s attention. Andrew Lorimer, CEO of Datamar, will be one of the speakers at Fruit Logistica, an international business fair that will take place from February 8 to 10 in Berlin, Germany.

Fruit Logistica is the world’s leading global fresh produce business event, gathering an extensive range of the entire value-added chain for the fresh produce industry, from producer to point of sale. More than 3,300 exhibitors from 91 countries presented their products, services, and technical solutions at the event. Around 73,000 suppliers and trade visitors from 135 countries participated in the event.

Source: Fresh Plaza

To read the full reporting, please visit: https://www.freshplaza.com/north-america/article/9495972/global-market-overview-lemons/

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