Posts Tagged “Mexican citrus exports”
October rains flooded Mexico’s orange groves, resulting a projected three percent decline in orange yields for the 2025/26 season and a 0.4 percent decrease in overall citrus projections, reports the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In late 2025, Tropical Storm Raymond and Hurricane Priscilla caused significant damage nationwide and struck Veracruz, Mexico’s leading orange-producing region, particularly hard.
Prolonged, erratic rainfalls destroyed several groves and delayed the October harvest until November and December 2025, leading to the loss of significant amounts of ripe fruit and inconsistent quality.
This year’s orange harvest is projected to fall short of last season’s, landing at just 5.18 million short tons.
This season’s numbers dip even further below last year’s, which had already dropped by more than 2.1 percent. The culprit, once again, is rain, the report states.
The orange planted area, on the other hand, will increase by 0.97 percent despite challenges posed by erratic weather, citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing), and other pests that are reducing yields in Veracruz and other orange-producing states.
While total production of fresh oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit in Mexico may decrease, average consumption is up by four percent. Likewise, exports are projected to rise by six percent, according to the USDA.
Lemons and limes are stealing the spotlight, driving the surge in both domestic consumption and international exports.
The total planted area for citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit, reached over 1.49 million acres, a 1.2 percent increase from last year.
Oranges account for 58 percent of all citrus plantings, lemons for 38 percent, and grapefruit for 3.6 percent.
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Despite a drought in Mexico, and a forecast of a 45 percent drop in citrus production, total exports to the U.S. are expected to see a minimum drop in 2020.
While an ongoing and significant drought continue, navel orange exports to the U.S. should be down only 3 percent. Most of the decline affects valencia oranges destined for the juice market.
Mexican orange production is on 847,000 acres, but the USDA reports high tree mortality is expected due to prolonged high temperatures and lack of rain. Producers in Veracruz report widespread replanting of orange trees is underway.
Orange yields are down by about 30 percent, while the 2019-20 harvest of 2.53 million metric tons is 45 percent lower than a previous estimate and one of the lowest projected harvests since the early 1990s.
There are also concerns without increased government support, citrus greening disease could become a more serious problem throughout the country.
Most Mexican fresh oranges shipped to the U.S. are navel oranges from Sonora, and the USDA projects 2019-20 fresh exports to the U.S. will reach 60,000 metric tons, down 3 percent from 2018-19.
Lime Exports
Mexico is the world’s second-largest producer of limes, with production in the states of Michoacán, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Tamaulipas.
While drought has hurt lemon and lime production, the damage has not been as severe as suffered by oranges.
Nearly all lime exports go to the U.S. Mexican exports of lemons and limes to the U.S. are forecast at 755,000 metric tons for 2019-20, unchanged from 2018-19.