According to Horácio Ferreira, from the Cooperativa Agrícola de Citricultores do Algarve (CACIAL), the 2022/2023 campaign ended with a 50% drop in production in the summer variety.
"The previous [season] proved to be a campaign with a few kilograms, in the last variety, which is the summer variety. There was 50% less than the normal quantity", Horácio Ferreira told Lusa, stressing that this drop led to the cooperative "stopping with national orange in August, September, October and a good part of November".
The consequence was that "the Algarve orange only started to appear for sale on December 4th", he pointed out, clarifying that the fruit produced in the region "can only use this term [of Algarve orange] when it is PGI [Geographical Indication Protected]".
The CACIAL director recalled that, at the beginning of the 2022/2023 campaign, they were "coming from a year of overproduction", and had expected a decline.