The WCO Secretariat has released its annual Northern Hemisphere Citrus Forecast for the upcoming season (2021-22). The preliminary Forecast is based on data from industry associations from Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, in addition to the United States (based on USDA reports for Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas).

Philippe Binard, Secretary General of WCO stated: “The Forecast shows that the 2021-22 Northern Hemisphere citrus crop is projected to reach 29.342.000 tonnes, which represents a 1.27% decrease compared to the previous season”.
Orange production is projected to decrease by 3.45% to a total of 15.485.106 tonnes. A slight decrease is also expected for grapefruit (-0.34%, 946.521 tonnes) and soft citrus (-0.70%, 8.456.112 tonnes) production. Lemon production, on the other hand, is estimated to increase by 5.64% and reach 4.454.327 tonnes. In Europe Union, citrus production is forecasted to experience a 9.35% decrease in Greece, a 7.74% decrease in Spain, and a 2.62% decrease in Italy.

In the Southern rim of the Mediterranean, production is projected to decrease in Tunisia (-21.97%), remain stable in Egypt (-0.06%), and increase in Israel (+26.63%), Turkey (+21.85%), and Morocco (+5.53%). The citrus crop in the United States is expected to decrease by 11.79% compared to last year.
Binard added: “WCO has also engaged for citrus with the China’s Chamber of Commerce for foodstuffs (CFNA) and Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to collect their estimates. This has overall provided an overview of the Northern Hemisphere covering a grand total of 83.2 Mio tonnes of citrus from the Northern Hemisphere for the next season” This is the result of the forecast in China, for an increase in citrus production by 5.23%, reaching 53.900.000 tonnes in the upcoming season.  WorldCitrusOrganisation