The Argentine citrus season continues to suffer as a result of the climatic conditions that are affecting the country.

According to José Carbonell, president of Federcitrus, the campaign is still delayed.

"It's still raining, both in the NOA (Argentine Northwest) and in the Argentine NEA (Argentine Northeast). At this time the harvest is paralyzed because we had five days in a row of rain, which ended two days ago and still can not enter the fields," he explained.

"We are going at a very low level of progress in relation to the time," he said.

He added that the Northern Hemisphere carried out abundant campaigns, keeping the market well supplied.

"The U.S., Spain, Turkey have had important harvests in the Northern Hemisphere and markets are a bit repressed."

These circumstances apply for acid citrus as well as sweet citrus.

As for how this situation would affect the processing industry, he pointed out that fruit will be used depending on the demand of the sector.

For the fresh sector, particularly exports, he commented:  "Surely there will be smaller volumes because much of the crop can no longer be recovered. The fruit biologically has a period, which, if passed, no longer can meet export quality."

He also cautioned that frost could further affect these smaller volumes.

LGS sees successful lemon imports

Despite the unfavorable growing conditions that have impacted much of the industry, not all have been affected.

LGS Specialty Sales, Ltd. an importer and distributor of key citrus in the U.S. is one of these outliers. It referred to the success of their Darling Lemons.

"We are proud to continue with our lemon program in Argentina this year," said Luke Sears, president and founder of LGS.

"We anticipate that consumers and buyers will be delighted with the quality, taste and size of our Argentine lemons."

"The Argentine season will continue to have value in the U.S. market, as the coastal area of ​​California decreases its production, which will result in better prices for lemons. "

Meanwhile, the Chilean Navels should arrive in the first week of July, with enough volumes to supply the Northern Hemisphere until autumn.