Lemon production in the region of Tucuman has benefited from fine weather in the last few weeks allowing growers into the fields to harvest their export crop.

Companies are working hard this year with plant health authority Senasa to ensure only top-quality fruit is exported with inspections carried out from the field to destination ports.

Early reports indicate that although fruit quality is good, prices are disappointing for exporters at on average five to 15 per cent below the levels of May 2001. However, the early days of last season were dogged by rainfall, limiting access for the harvest and tightening supplies.

Local producers' association ATC president Enrique Prado called in the Argentinean press for the sector to work together to make a successful season.

'We must get down to work, growers as well as packers, processors and exporters to draw up the strategies we need to take on board as a sector, and to continue to grow and recover any market share we might have lost,' Prado was reported.

The EU stands to gain from the Argentineans' loss of access to the US market, which briefly opened to them last season before the process was stalled in the US courts.

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