Total citrus exports from the Southern Hemisphere fell in 2024 after several years of marked growth. The main culprit was South Africa, which contributed two-thirds of the Southern Hemisphere’s exports at 2.23 million tons.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is by far the main exporter of fresh citrus in the Southern Hemisphere. In this region, South Africa is traditionally the largest exporter of oranges and grapefruit. In recent years, the country also achieved that feat with mandarins and lemons, thanks to strong crop expansion. This growth trend is very marked and has not yet reached its maximum potential.
The initial high expectations for South African exports were not met in the current campaign. Climatic, logistical, market and cost problems made it impossible to reach forecast export levels. There were several contradictory inclement weather conditions, including heat waves, frosts, droughts, floods and strong winds. At the same time, the harvested citrus fruit had problems being transported to the ports, stored and loaded onto ships.
In the main market — the European Union — South Africa faced greater competition with Mediterranean products than usual. Added to this were growing phytosanitary requirements, which are very difficult to meet and are causing many headaches for southern exporters, especially for oranges.
The Asian market reacted slowly and demanded less fruit than expected. The United States is a minor destination for South Africa, largely because the phytosanitary protocol is very demanding.
See a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service forecast for South African citrus in 2024–25 here.
CHILE
The other Southern Hemisphere exporting countries of fresh citrus have shown a fairly stable situation in recent years. The second leading exporter is Chile, exporting between 350,000 to 400,000 tons. It mostly exports mandarins, clementines and late varieties. But this year the weather was not ideal, which is why it could not maintain the export record of 2023, with shipments falling by 21% to 183,000 tons. However, lemon and orange exports from Chile were higher than in previous years.
PERU
In third place for Southern Hemisphere citrus exports is Peru, which this year was the exception, surpassing the values of other years and achieving export records.
Eighty percent of Peru’s citrus shipments are mandarins. The country exported 219,000 tons of mandarins. Export volumes of other citrus fruits, including limes and oranges, also reached record levels.
ARGENTINA
Argentina is the fourth largest Southern Hemisphere exporter. It mainly exports lemons, a citrus fruit that is suffering a severe crisis due to a global oversupply. This leads to constant reductions in its fresh exports.
AUSTRALIA
Australia exports about 200,000 to 250,000 tons of sweet citrus fruit to Asia. This year, it suffered from inclement weather, leading to lower export volumes than in other years.
Source: Top Info Marketing S.A.
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