Lemons continue to be lower in supply across the industry. "They have been a challenge all season long. They started off tight this year and it was always light week to week," says G.T. Parris of Seald Sweet. "We could never get the volume that we projected at the beginning of the season."
This year, Argentina, which has now finished its lemon shipping season, began their season earlier and also shipped more fruit to Europe this season. In turn, that left the U.S. shorter on supply because a lot of that volume that was projected to arrive in the country shifted at the later stage of the season. That set off a continuous shortage throughout the year on imported lemons. "The industry was never able to make up the volume," says Parris.
On top of this, Chile was also not able to come in with enough fruit to meet the demand so supply continued to be tight throughout its season as well. Chile is now finishing up its season on lemons with its last shipments on the water arriving by boat.
Bags vs. bulk lemons
The tight supply is industry wide and Parris says that Seald Sweet will finish with its program shortly and be short of its projected finishing. Typically the company goes through October. "Particularly on Fancy bulk–maybe with bags. That's another thing. Some are shifting away from bulk and concentrating on bags where more of the quality is," he says.
© Seald SweetParris says the season started off tight this year and it was always light week to week. ed
That has left the market a high-priced one and that was before tariffs were set on product coming into the U.S. "The market has been extremely high. Sometimes you look at your programs and you have to cover those, even though you might have gotten more pricing on the spot market. It's been an extreme challenge all year," says Parris.
Now, Mexico has gotten started with its harvest and the country has received a tremendous amount of rain during the early season of harvesting, which is adding to the supply challenge given it doesn't have a lot of size and the country is mostly shipping Choice lemons. That has left both lemon volume and quality challenged–most are packing out as Choice and Standard–and continuing to keep that supply tight.
Leading into California's season
"Mexico is a solution to help out until California kicks in. California is trying to get started but they don't have enough yet to build that pipeline," says Parris, adding that pricing is likely to stay stronger leading into California's production, which will begin with volume next month. "This might be advantageous for them to get better pricing overall for their market. If that's the case, this could lead us into next year's imports which could be the same situation. It sounds like it's going to be very similar in terms of supply from Argentina."
Also adding to next year's supply challenges could be the frost seen on Turkey's lemon crop. "It could be the same scenario next year but at least we'll be better prepared on pricing and how to allocate that fruit," adds Parris.
For more information:
G.T. Parris
Seald Sweet
Tel: +1 (772) 569-2244
www.sealdsweet.com