Rising demand in the North American market has led to the Moroccan citrus industry shipping significantly higher volumes than last season, website Medias24.com reported. 

The story said the market had received about 25% of citrus shipments to date this season. The figure last season was around 14%, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report. Clementines reportedly constitute the vast majority of these shipments.

To date the EU has only received around 20% of Morocco's citrus exports.

The rising demand in North America comes amid a falling value of the currency of Russia - the Moroccan citrus sector's largest market by far, which receives around 55% of citrus exports.

The value of the Russian ruble has been in sharp decline over recent months, affecting the profitability of exporters trading with the ex-Soviet country.

In addition to the changing market dynamics, the Moroccan citrus industry has further lowered its production and export estimates for the season, which will wrap up in June.

Medias24.com reported total production was not expected to exceed 1.9 million metric tons (MT) - down from the initial estimate of 2.2 million MT.

Export volumes are also not expected to exceed 485,000MT - down from the original forecast of 600,000MT.

The drop in production and exports is largely due to flooding in October and November last year, particularly in the region of Souss where more than half of the country's export volumes are produced.

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