The Argentine Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries has established a monitoring system for lemon juice exports to the United States to ensure compliance with the Suspension Agreement on the Antidumping Investigation on Lemon Concentrate Juice, first signed in 2016 and renewed in January 2025.

As part of this initiative, all Argentine exporters who are signatories to the Agreement must provide advance information about their shipments to the United States.

This monitoring system will be in effect for the entire duration of the Suspension Agreement and will cover 100% of the annual exports of lemon concentrate juice in various formats, including concentrate, clarified frozen concentrate, other lemon concentrate juices, and non-concentrated sour juices.

Only companies that have signed the Agreement will be authorized to export lemon juice to the U.S. market, including Puerto Rico. Argentina remains the leading supplier of lemon concentrate juice to the United States, with a 34% market share in 2023, which grew to 37% in 2024.

The Lemon Concentrate Antidumping Investigation

The original agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and Argentine exporters was signed on October 20, 2016, and included nearly all of Argentina’s lemon juice producers/exporters. It established fixed reference prices to prevent the dumping of lemon concentrate juice in the U.S. market.

However, repeated breaches of the Agreement occurred due to the volatility of international product prices. In response, an Addendum was signed on January 17, 2025, introducing updated reference prices, mechanisms for adjusting those prices, and the requirement of export monitoring to ensure compliance.

Failure to comply with the Agreement’s terms could result in its termination and the imposition of steep antidumping duties on all Argentine lemon concentrate juice exports. This could potentially lead to the loss of access to the critical U.S. market.

You can review the full document in Spanish here.