Overall Japanese citrus planted area and production on a downward trend

Japan’s MY 2022/23 mandarin production has recovered from last year’s historically lowest production. However, overall Japanese citrus planted area and production is on a downward trend amidst aging farmers, labor shortages, and a lack of successors for running farms. Japanese yen depreciation is projected to impact consumption of largely imported oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and orange juice. Stocks of orange juice is limited, causing sales of some orange juice products to be suspended.

Imports:

In MY 2022/23, Japan increased tangerine imports by 26 percent to 18,119 MT to partially compensate for reduced domestic production. While the United States remains the leading tangerine supplier to Japan at 31.3 percent import share, Turkey rapidly achieved 31 percent of import share in just two years because of a price advantage over U.S. tangerines (Table 1). While Japanese tangerine importers anticipate that Turkish tangerine exports will continue to grow in MY 2023/24, recovering domestic tangerine production will offset demand for imported tangerines. Therefore, FAS/Tokyo forecasts Japan’s tangerine import volume to remain flat at 18,000 MT in MY 2023/24.

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