Lemons quite pricey in Australia right now

Lemon prices have gone soaring because of the weak Australian dollar; local supermarkets are selling the fruit at top dollar. Lemons in Woolworths and Coles are selling for as much as $2 each, or $8.80 per kilo, at a time of year when the fruit is most popular. The normal retail price is about $3.99-4.99 per kilo.

Lemons are always slightly more expensive during the Australian summer because they are imported from the United States, Citrus Australia chairman Ben Cant said: “ There’s some Australian lemons around, but it isn’t enough to meet demand so we import from the US and a limited amount from Spain. The exchange rate in the US is making it more expensive than the normal Australian fruit.”

“The light supply also coincides with higher demand … because [there is] more use for them in recipes and drinks and alcohol at this time of year. The few Australian growers who have fruit at the moment, they’ll be getting good money but they won’t have a lot of lemons.”

Cant said prices would come down in March when more Australian lemons were ready to be picked. “As soon as Australian fruit is available we ask consumers to help us out and get back on board. We can’t beat Mother Nature.”

Source: smh.com.au via www.freshplaza.com 

Publication date : 1/9/2019