A summer without citrus: Weather and supply chain issues lead to fewer lemons and oranges

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There is nothing like a fresh glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. The tartness perfectly accompanies a well-cooked burger at a backyard BBQ and after a tough game of beach volleyball in the sun, it is an inexpensive treat that cools you down.

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This year, however, Canadians may be missing the staple beverage at their summer get-togethers as lemon and citrus products have become increasingly harder to find on grocery store shelves.

Alysa Kim, a real estate agent living in Toronto, was recently searching for lemons to make her nine-year-old son Robert some healthy and inexpensive lemonade. She likes to buy bags of lemons, instead of bottled juice, to reduce the amount of plastic her household produces.

Kim first asked her husband to go pick some up, but when he came home empty-handed, she ventured out herself. Her first stop was No Frills, where she said she usually finds the cheapest prices, but she was met with empty produce baskets. Her next stops, the local Loblaws Superstore and Whole Foods, were also out.

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Experts say a lack of citrus fruits, including lemons, limes, and oranges, may be a reality consumers should start getting used to. Heat waves, cold freezes, and droughts in countries where citrus is grown have affected production and led to a decline in the amount of fruit available.

In Florida, orange production is at the lowest it’s been since the 1940s. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the state will ship out 16 per cent less than it did the previous year. This is due to harsh weather, specifically a brutal winter freeze that hit early this year.

In other high citrus-producing countries, droughts and extreme heat are dramatically affecting the number of crops they are producing. In May, a heatwave swept parts of India, a large producer of lemons, with temperatures reaching a record-breaking high of 49 degrees Celsius, and in Mexico, areas of the country are experiencing unprecedented drought.

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The lack of citrus being produced has led to a steep increase in the price of these fruits, including lemons, limes, and oranges.

“Citrus fruits have gone up in prices significantly. They’re one of the products that have increased the most in the last year,” said Sylvain Charlebois, professor and director of the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University.

According to Statistics Canada, in April 2022 Canadians paid 10 per cent more for fresh fruit than they did the year before. Oranges saw an increase of 21 per cent.

This inflation is driven by a few factors, explained Charlebois, less product due to climate change, lingering supply chain issues driven by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine causing shortages, and high fuel prices.

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“Canada does not produce any of its own citrus fruit, it is all imported, which also tends to bring up the price,” said Charlebois.

This rise will affect companies, like ReaLemon, Mott’s and Minute Maid, that make products with citrus, like juices and frozen concentrates. As it now costs more to purchase fresh fruit, it may get harder for them to keep passing on the extra cost of producing their product to consumers, said Charlebois.

“They may just decide not to carry a certain product because it’s too expensive,” he said.

In her search to find lemons, Kim was able to finally find a bag at her fourth stop, a No Frills farther from her home. But, after her recent experience, she is preparing for a summer without citrus.

“I guess we’ll just have water.”