July 19,2018-
From The Packer newspaper
California is experiencing a summer lemon shortage in part due to the heat in the Coastal region.It also affected avocado trees.
The heat on July 6 may have caused damage to as much as 30% of the avocado crop remaining on the trees and caused a 10% reduction in the total crop, said Rob Wedin, vice president of sales and marketing with Santa Paula, Calif.-based Calavo Growers Inc.
California Citrus Mutual president Joel Nelsen says a heat wave in the coastal region this month has brought on ripening much more quickly than usual. Alex Teague, chief operating officer of Santa Paula, Calif.-based Limoneira, said the high temperatures hit around July 7.
“There’s been a lot of fruit that’s fallen off the tree,” Nelsen said. “Typically what we do is we harvest the fruit when it’s green and let it ripen under storage conditions … The fruit on the tail end of the season, it ripens on the tree, turns yellow, and you’re hoping to get it off before the heat adversely affects it.
“Well, it didn’t happen this year,” Nelsen said. Zak Laffite, chief sales officer for Delano, Calif.-based Wonderful Citrus, gave a similar account.
“Where growers had tried to extend the season with tree ripe fruit, you can see higher signs of fruit drop in the groves,” Laffite said. “This could affect the overall lemon supply for the next 12 weeks.”
He noted Wonderful has less than 20% of its crop still on the tree.
“This year’s coastal lemon crop seemed to have more early color or ripening on the tree, which forced us to speed up the rate of harvest between February and May,” Laffite said. “Early color can sometimes represent a higher risk of fruit drop later in the season.”
He estimated that imported lemons account for at least 35-40% of supplies from July to September and said weather has also hampered production in Mexico and Chile.
The shortage has increased prices.
The Packer says “on July 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported f.o.b. prices at mostly $ 41.80-45.80 for cartons of shippers first grade California lemons sizes 95 and 115.
One month earlier, the prices for cartons of shippers first grade California lemons were mostly $28.80-31.80 for 95s and $29.80-32.80 for 115s.”