This season’s Spanish lemon harvest is expected to increase by 34 per cent over the 2007 campaign, according to a newly released forecast from Spain’s ministry of agriculture and the environment.
A 27 per cent rise in the orange crop and an 11 per cent increase in Spain’s apple harvest were also predicted in the official data, which although collated until 31 August was not issued until this week.
According to the figures, overall Spanish lemon volumes are forecast to exceed 669,000 tonnes compared with 498,800 in 2007, with the predicted harvest expected to be greater in the region of Valencia than in Andalucia.
Similarly, Spain’s orange and mandarin crops are also expected to rise substantially this season, with orange volumes forecast to increase to more than 3.3m tonnes and mandarin harvest levels set to top 2.1m tonnes.
In other sectors, the outlook is also predicted to be largely positive. The ministry estimates that this campaign’s table grape harvest will reach over 320,000 tonnes compared with 286,400 tonnes in 2007. The total apple and pear crop is also expected to reach over 617,300 tonnes compared with 566,500 last season.
However, officials do expect to see lower volumes in several sectors, notably melons, which are forecast to fall by 8.5 per cent compared with the previous campaign.
