Argentine lemons are enjoying strong prices across all export markets in spite of the challenging start to the 2015 campaign. An excessively hot summer followed by a period of heavy rainfall caused delays to harvesting and has resulted in only a partial recovery to production following the 2013 freeze.
“Production is 30 per cent up on last year but still below pre-freeze levels,” All Lemon president Romain Corneille told Fruitnet. “Nevertheless, we have more fruit available and this will enable us to reach more markets. Companies are doing all they can to meet the their customers’ requirements.”
Currently, prices on the European market are at similar levels to last year, while strong demand in the Middle East and Asia is also keeping the market fluid, Corneille said.
“Prices in Russia are also very attractive but we have to factor in the devaluation of the rouble, which has fallen by around 46 per cent against the dollar in recent months,” he noted.
