It has rained so much in Spain during 2025 that we are going to have the worst citrus harvest of the last 16 years

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has just published the capacity of citrus of this year. At first glance, the data are devastating: it is estimated that Spanish farmers They will produce 5.44 million tons of citrus fruits. That is 10.7% less than last campaign and 14.2% less than the last five campaigns.

We talk about the worst campaign in 16 years.

The only positive thing about this data is that they are better that those who were giving the producers themselves.

A world giant … in back. Do not forget that, for the Spanish economy, citrus fruits are not one more product. Not only is the sixth citrus producer of the world; It is that almost 25% of global exports leave here and, in fact, more than half of national production is used for sale in foreign markets.

Every year, the country sells the equivalent of 3.6 billion euros throughout the country.

With this in mind, the fall in production could be seen as a lousy news and, nevertheless, the Spanish field is at a point where (without despising its pernicious effects) it can be the best that has happened to it.

As? As it sounds. The best example is lemon, according to ministry estimates, lemon production would fall to about 866,657 tons. That is, 14.7% less than the previous year: 149,400 tons less. It seems a lot, but we take into account that, According to COAGlast year they were discarded around 400,000 tons. The figure does not seem so big.

In the end, in just eight years, Spain has gone from having 36,000 hectares dedicated to the cultivation of lemon to 53,000. The lemon went from being “the chicken of the golden eggs” from the Spanish field to a trap that has forced many producers to start tear out trees.

However, that is not the reason for the fall. According to the mapthe main factors behind this setback are the excessive spring rain (which coincided with flowering and contributed to their rot), high temperatures during citrus development and a series of hail episodes in producing areas.

Where does Spanish agriculture go? Be that as it may, this adjustment of oranges and lemons can help to clean up a sector that has a long time. The question, however, is what damage will cause that sanitation and which parts of the sector will take ahead.

As with other agricultural products (such as The Canary Islands banana or the traditional olive grove) the succession of bad years has led the producers to the edge of the abyss and all the alternatives are bad.

Image | Jesus Ginter | Noele Cooper

Image | From the fever to the crisis of lemon: why in Spain there are 400 million kilos of fruit that nobody wants to collect