Spain's Lemon and Grapefruit Interprofessional Association (Ailimpo) is forecasting lemon production for the 2017-18 season to remain virtually unchanged from the current deal. 

The group's first lemon harvest estimate for the upcoming campaign points toward a production figure of 1,080,000 metric tons (MT).

The current campaign that will finish at the end of August is set to wrap up with 1,090,000MT of fruit harvested. This compares to the 10-year average of 899,505MT.

"The campaign for Fino lemons will begin as usual during September and gather full steam for cutting and exporting in October" Ailimpo said.

"The water and weather conditions in the coming weeks" could modify the initial estimate, it said.

It added an overall lemon production figure exceeding one million tons would enable the sector to once again consolidate its export volume to European Union (EU) markets. 

"Such a production will also suffice to satisfy the growing demand in the domestic market and relaunch exports to third countries outside the EU such as Canada, Brazil or the Middle Eastern countries, thus making progress in the diversification of markets initiated by the exporter market a few years ago," it said.

"Moreover, this production volume will afford normal lemon processing activity, for which Spain ranks second worldwide and has a key role in regulating the offer and market balance."

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