The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) recently forecast that Mexican orange and orange juice (OJ) production will both increase slightly in 2024–25.
ORANGES
Orange production is forecast at 5.05 million metric tons (MMT), 2% more than the previous season.
Mexico ranks fourth worldwide in the production of oranges with 10% of total production. It trails only Brazil, China and the European Union.
Valencias account for 95% of Mexican orange production, followed by the Hamlin variety at 4%.
Mexican orange planted area for 2024–25 is projected at 357,000 hectares, a marginal 1% increase from the previous year. In 2023, most of Mexico’s orange planted area was in the states of Veracruz (48.5%), Puebla (9.9%), Tamaulipas (9.7%), San Luis Potosí (9.1%) and Nuevo Leon (7.3%).
Mexico’s fresh orange exports are forecast at 54,000 metric tons (MT), 2% more than the previous year. The state of Nuevo Leon is a major exporter of oranges to the United States, but those exports are expected to drop in 2024. Traditionally, more than 98% of Mexico’s fresh orange exports go to the United States.
The forecast for fresh orange imports is 21,000 MT, unchanged from the previous year due to steady fruit imports from the United States and unchanged domestic production volume. Mexico imports fresh oranges only from the United States.
ORANGE JUICE
The 2024–25 production forecast for concentrated orange juice is 187,000 MT, a 4% increase from the estimate for the prior year.
Producers/shippers deliver 40% to 50% of oranges for juice processing.
The OJ export forecast is 182,000 MT, 5% higher than the previous season’s estimate. This is due to the availability of better-quality fruit with more juice content.
OJ imports are forecast at 1,600 MT, unchanged from the previous year. The majority of OJ imported into Mexico is juice originally produced in Mexico that was shipped for bottling/packaging to the United States and reimported for sale in supermarkets.
See the full USDA FAS report on Mexican citrus here.
Source: USDA FAS
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