Drought Slashes Morocco’s Citrus Production by 30%, Impacting Global Supply

According to EastFruit, the drought of the 2019-2020 agricultural season has caused a one-third drop in production in Morocco to 806,000 tons. Consequently, the number of citrus fruits supplied to the fresh market, for export and for processing should experience a sharp decline.

Globally, citrus production has seen a significant drop of 7.8 million tons during the 2019/20 season compared to the previous one, to 46.1 million tons, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In detail, Brazil has seen a 19% drop in its citrus harvest compared to last season at 15.6 million tons. In Mexico, producers have lost nearly half of their crops and the 2019/20 season’s production was only 2.5 million tons.

In Africa, Egypt has seen a 17% drop in its citrus harvest compared to 11% for Turkey. As for its harvest in this country, it stood at 3 million tons, while that of Turkey reached 1.7 million tons. As for South Africa’s production, it stabilized at 1.6 million tons compared to 7 million for China.