The World Citrus Organisation (WCO) has released its annual Northern Hemisphere Citrus Forecast for the upcoming 2021-22 season.

The forecast shows that total citrus production is projected to reach 29,342,000 metric tons (MT), representing a slightly drop of 1.3 percent year-on-year. However, there are greater changed within the different citrus categories.

It is based on data from Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the U.S.

Orange production is projected to decrease by over three percent to a total of around 15,500,000MT. A slight decrease of less than one percent is also expected for grapefruit and soft citrus, to 950,000MT and 8,460,000MT, respectively.

Lemon production is expected to increase by almost six percent and reach about 4,500,000MT.

In the EU, citrus production is looking at decreases of about 10 percent in Greece, eight percent in Spain and three percent in Italy.

In the Southern rim of the Mediterranean, production is projected to decrease 22 percent in  Tunisia, remain stable in Egypt and increase 27 percent in Israel, 22 percent in Turkey and six percent in Morocco.

The citrus crop in the United States is expected to decrease by 12 percent year on year.

"WCO has also engaged for citrus with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for foodstuffs (CFNA) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to collect their estimates," Philippe Binard, Secretary General of WCO said.

"This has overall provided an overview of  the Northern Hemisphere covering a grand total of 83.2 Mio T of citrus from the Northern Hemisphere for  the next season."

This is a result of the forecast in China with an increase of about five percent in citrus production, reaching 54,000,000MT in the upcoming season.

Natalia Santos-Garcia Bernabe, WCO’s deputy Secretary-General said: "WCO will present its forecast during the second edition of the Global Citrus Congress which will stream live on 16-17 November from London, Los Angeles and Melbourne."

This will allow viewers around the globe to pick their most convenient time to take part live or to watch on-demand.

Last year’s Congress drew more than 1,300 delegates from 59 countries, bringing together producers, exporters, importers, retailers, and service providers from all over the world.