South African lemon exports have reached a new record this year, set to top last year's figure by almost one million boxes.

There are just 100,000 cartons of the estimated 19.9 million 15-kilogram cartons left to pack, the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said on Friday.

The final volume should fall just 3% below the forecast released in March by the Lemon Focus Group.

In a weekly newsletter, CGA CEO Justin Chadwick highlighted that many of the regional estimates had proved to be very accurate.

The biggest region (Sundays River) at 8.65 million cartons was 1.7% over, Senwes at 4.13 million cartons was 8% under, while Boland at 1.2 million cartons is 4% under.

There were some shifts in export destinations of southern African lemons in regional terms. The Middle East received a 35% share this year compared to 40% last year, while Southeast Asia received 12% compared to 16% last season.

The proportion sent to Europe increased from 20% to 29%, while the U.K.'s share rose from 7% to 9%.

Russia saw a slight drop from 11% to 9% and North America increased from 4% to 5%.