Argentina is predicting a good lemon season for 2013 thanks to optimum flowering due a lack of frost in July, claims the country's quality assurance body All Lemon.

Argenti Lemon general manager Carlos Parravicini, whose company is a member of the organization, said the 2012 season finished on a positive note with exporters gaining good prices despite operating in a "complex" environment.

Production cost inflation domestically and the global economic crisis were a few of the challenges which producers faced.

"We were fortunate that these negative predictions were not met because the April rains delayed the campaign kick-off until May, while by April the fruit volumes in the Northern Hemisphere had been used up.

"Consequently, Argentine lemons entered those markets in a notably clear scenario, not quite simple but with stable prices throughout the whole campaign."

The country exported 260,000 metric tons worldwide with the Middle East showing the greatest growth.

Export destinations outside Europe and Russia continued to grow with 15,800MT shipped in 2008 compared with 23,458MT this year.

Pablo Padilla, whose company is also audited by All Lemon, said the increases demonstrated the quality of Argentine lemons.

"These figures show that this has been a record year for exports to new destinations, while they indicate the strong commitment assumed by exporters to continue developing these markets."

The 15 producers belonging to All Lemon stepped up their quality control weekly checkins in packing lines to achieve greater quality consistency for exports in 2012.

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