COLOGNE, Germany — "When we turn on the electricity at the factory, we start and then we don't stop for six months," an executive at Citrusvil, one of Argentina's largest lemon processors, told Cropli. "So more stock, more stock, more stock, but no demand."

That was the bind Argentina's lemon juice concentrate industry found itself in after the pandemic struck in 2020. Lockdowns crushed beverage consumption, but the factories kept running — once a processing line starts, shutting down is not a practical option. Inventory mounted. Concentrate has a three-year shelf life, and the clock was ticking.

By last year, prices for the benchmark 400 GPL cloudy concentrate had collapsed to $1,000 per tonne. "Small players that didn't have the financial backing were even offering $950 because if not, they didn't have cashflow and faced bankruptcy," the Citrusvil executive told Cropli at the Anuga food trade fair in Cologne.

Prices have since more than doubled to around $2,000 per tonne and are expected to climb to $2,500 by the start of Argentina's 2026 harvest season in March, according to executives from Citrusvil and FGF Trapani, both interviewed at Anuga.

"Nowadays, prices are more like $2,000 and customers say, 'Oh my God, it's double,'" the Citrusvil executive said.

Argentina's lemon juice industry is dominated by four producers — Citrusvil, Trapani, San Miguel Citromax and Litoral Citrus — operating thousands of hectares of orchards in Tucumán, the country's principal growing region. Citrusvil alone processes 300,000 tonnes of lemons annually. The concentrate is used primarily in carbonated soft drinks, lemonades and as an acidifying agent in beverages, with processors also producing lemon oil, dehydrated peel for pectin and pulp cells as byproducts.

The recovery has been helped by tightening European supply. Spanish producers expect 30 per cent lower output for the season that just began, redirecting demand toward Argentina. The two countries dominate global lemon production, harvesting in opposite halves of the year — Spain from October to March, Argentina from March to September. Argentine processors expect to handle approximately 1.5mn tonnes of fruit in the upcoming season.

Trapani, a top-four producer processing 100,000 tonnes of lemons annually, has completely sold out of this year's production. "We have had very large demand this year," an executive at the company told Cropli. "Now we are sold out of lemon juice."

Last year, the US imported 182,000 tonnes of frozen lemon juice — the highest volume in over a decade — with two-thirds coming from Argentina.

At last year's SIAL Paris trade fair, Citrusvil offered steep discounts to clear the last of its remaining carryover stock from the pandemic era. "It was cheap, but we sold it all," the executive said.

Though current prices still remain below the $3,000 per tonne that prevailed before the pandemic, the Citrusvil executive is bullish. "This year, we start afresh."