50
T
he highly regarded Brazilian
lemon, also known as Tahi-
ti acid lime, experienced abnor-
mal stages in2015and2016. The
market of the fruit inStateof São
Paulo, leading producer in Brazil, “is going
through an atypical moment this year, a sit-
uation that stems from high industrial and
Lemonsegmentisgoing
throughanatypical
behaviorwithregard
toclimate,production
andprices,which
continuedhighin2016
Atypical
moments
foreign demand, especially in the first quar-
ter, along with the climate effects”, said offi-
cials from the Center for Applied Studies on
AdvancedEconomics (Cepea), of theUniver-
sity of São Paulo (USP), in August 2016.
“There has been a change in the rainy
season, starting in 2015, a fact that had an
influence upon products and prices”, said
Afonso Castelucci, president of the Brazil-
ian Association of Lemon Producers and
Exporters (Abpel), in September 2016, in
an interview published by Brazilian Citrus
Yearbook. Lemons fetched high prices in
periods non-typical to this behavior, like R$
70 per box in August 2016, in the domestic
market, the official commented.
During almost the entire first quarter of
the year, when prices normally drop, the
fruit was negotiated at high prices, reflect-
ing tight supply of the product, said Cepea
sources, in August 2016. At the turn of the
year, surveys by theCenter for AppliedStud-
ies concluded that lemon prices continued
high during the entire year, with record av-
erage from February to October, at R$ 41.82
per box, up 57.3% from2015.
Judging from the official numbers re-
leased in 2015, lemon production showed
a slight recovery from the previous year,
but in São Paulo, State that accounts for
64% of the total, results were slightly low-
er, even in harvested area. There was some
increase in the States that come after São
Paulo in crop size, especially Bahia and
Leading producer, the State of São Paulo
registered a decline in production in 2015
Sílvio Ávila
