Spain braced for smallest citrus crop in a decade

Spain’s 2022/23 citrus crop is expected to slump by 15.6% year-on-year to just under 6 million tons, according to a release by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) /2023 campaign, which began on September 1. This volume is 12.8% lower than the average of the last five years. The main cause of the small crop is the extreme weather, with excessive rains during flowering and fruit setting, and extremely high temperatures and restrictions on irrigation in the later stages.

Oranges will see the greatest drop in volume (-19.9% from last season), while volumes of small citrus will be down by 9.8%, of lemons down by 12.4% and of grapefruit down by 13.7%.