Limoneira Company, an agribusiness packing, selling, and marketing company, just released its financial results for the first quarter of the year. The report shows an increase in net revenue to $34.3 million and an improvement of 31% in operating loss compared to last year's first quarter. 

According to Harold Edwards, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, these are the fruits of optimizing its revenue mix and transitioning to an asset-lighter model.

"Our multi-faceted approach – an asset-lighter business model, land and water monetization, expansion of avocado production, and growing our citrus business through multiple channels including quick-serve restaurants – has strengthened our financial structure," Edwards said. "This quarter’s results validate our longstanding commitment to a balanced portfolio designed to withstand temporary volatility in the lemon market.”

The company also reported a slight decrease of slightly over $5 million in agribusiness revenue and a slight decrease in operations revenue of less than a million compared to last year's first quarter. 

Agribusiness revenue in this year's first quarter came mainly from $21.2 million in fresh-packed lemon sales, a decrease from $23.9 million in the same period of fiscal year 2024.

Approximately 1,147,000 cartons of U.S. packed fresh lemons were sold in aggregate during the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 at an $18.44 average price per carton, compared to approximately 1,137,000 cartons sold at a $21.06 average price per carton during the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.

Brokered lemons and other lemon sales were $2.2 million and $2.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal years 2025 and 2024, respectively.

There was also a decrease in orange revenue of less than a million in the first quarter

The company saw revenue of $162,000 in avocado sales, with approximately 73,000 pounds of avocados sold at a $2.25 average price per pound. Due to the timing of harvest, no avocado revenue was recorded in the first quarter of the last fiscal year.

Although most fruit revenues decreased, mainly due to the timing of harvest, the company offset some of the losses with a decrease in total cost and expenses, which decreased to $39.7 million, compared to $47.5 million in the first quarter of last fiscal year, and operating loss.