Season calendar
Lemon export season by country
Lemon export season by country
When Argentina, Spain, Turkey and South Africa ship lemons, month by month, and why the Southern Hemisphere window is a Northern one's decision.
In season all year across Argentina, South Africa, Spain and Turkey — some origin is at peak in every month.
| Origin | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina April–September peak · March, October shoulder | January: Not shipping | February: Not shipping | March: Shoulder | April: Peak | May: Peak | June: Peak | July: Peak | August: Peak | September: Peak | October: Shoulder | November: Not shipping | December: Not shipping |
| South Africa April–August peak · March, September shoulder | January: Not shipping | February: Not shipping | March: Shoulder | April: Peak | May: Peak | June: Peak | July: Peak | August: Peak | September: Shoulder | October: Not shipping | November: Not shipping | December: Not shipping |
| Spain October–March peak · April–June shoulder | January: Peak | February: Peak | March: Peak | April: Shoulder | May: Shoulder | June: Shoulder | July: Not shipping | August: Not shipping | September: Not shipping | October: Peak | November: Peak | December: Peak |
| Turkey October–March peak · April–May, September shoulder | January: Peak | February: Peak | March: Peak | April: Shoulder | May: Shoulder | June: Not shipping | July: Not shipping | August: Not shipping | September: Shoulder | October: Peak | November: Peak | December: Peak |
Last reviewed August 2026. Windows are editorial ranges for a normal year, not a published schedule, and they are export weeks out of the origin rather than arrival weeks in your market.
Lemons are traded as a gap-filling crop more than any other citrus. Spain and Turkey ship through the Northern Hemisphere winter and spring, a few weeks apart rather than on top of each other; Argentina, the largest exporter in the world, ships from about April into September, straight into the months both have vacated. South Africa runs alongside Argentina.
Because lemons store and ship well, the price is set by supply gaps rather than by quality differences between origins. A buyer watching this calendar is watching for the weeks where one hemisphere has finished and the other has not started.
Argentina
April–September peak · March, October shoulder Varieties: Eureka, Lisbon Load ports: San Antonio Este, Buenos Aires, and Zárate
Roughly April to September out of Tucumán. Argentina is the largest lemon exporter in the world and this window is the reason: it opens as Spain and Turkey finish, and it holds the Northern Hemisphere market until they come back.
Because lemons store and travel well, this is a supply-gap trade rather than a freshness one. The price is set by how much fruit is in Northern Hemisphere stores when the Argentine season opens, not by anything happening in Tucumán.
South Africa
April–August peak · March, September shoulder Varieties: Eureka Load ports: Cape Town, Durban, and Gqeberha
Roughly March to September, on the same window as Argentina and into the same Northern Hemisphere gap.
South African lemon volume has grown substantially and much of it now goes east rather than to Europe. For a European buyer that makes availability in any given year a question about Middle Eastern and Asian demand as much as about the harvest.
Everything South Africa ships, month by month · South Africa → Rotterdam
Spain
October–March peak · April–June shoulder Varieties: Fino, Verna Load ports: Valencia, Algeciras, and Barcelona
Roughly October to June across two varieties: Fino through the winter, Verna into the early summer. Between them Spain covers most of the Northern Hemisphere year.
Where Spain stops is where Argentina starts. The Verna tail and the opening of the Argentine season are what set the price for the whole middle of the year, and a buyer watching one without the other is watching half the market.
Turkey
October–March peak · April–May, September shoulder Varieties: Interdonato, Lamas, Kütdiken Load ports: Mersin, İzmir, and Istanbul
Interdonato opens in September, Lamas and Kütdiken carry from October into the spring, and stored fruit ships past that into the early summer. Mersin is the port.
The window sits on Spain’s and just ahead of Argentina’s, which makes Turkey the swing supplier in most markets rather than the base one. Lemons store well enough that the shipping season outlasts the harvest by months, so the question on this row is almost never availability and almost always price.
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