World lemon market: A very resilient citrus fruit.

Citrus is one of the most traded fruits in the world, with an estimated market of 15 million tonnes in 21/22. With 2.4 million tonnes exported in the 2021-22 season, lemons alone account for 17% of the world's citrus market. However, this family of citrus fruits, together with small citrus fruits, still maintains a good dynamic within the world fruit trade. Nevertheless, if the rise in exported volumes was strong between 2012 and 2018 (+400,000 tonnes in 6 years), the dynamic has been calmer since then, apart from a surge linked to COVID-19. Moreover, the apparent good health of this family of citrus fruits hides major disparities between the main markets. Thus, the European Union and the United Kingdom have maintained a healthy growth dynamic on both the winter and summer markets (+74,000 tonnes in 5 years), but this remains largely dependent on the effects of alternating production. Similarly, Eastern Europe has enjoyed strong growth since 2015-16 (+22,000 tonnes) with a stabilising trend over the last two seasons. As for the North American market, it continues to perform well (+127,000 tonnes in 5 years) thanks to the progression of local production and the summer market. Conversely, the Chinese and Middle Eastern markets have not progressed since 2014. 

Lemon - imports evolution

Lemon - imports evolution