The production of Oranges

Nowadays the orange is the most cultivated citrus fruit in the world. Every year, more than 30 million tons of oranges are harvested all over the world. The major world producer of oranges is Brasil, with an esteemed annual production of about 18 million tons of oranges, about 33.3 % of the entire world production of oranges. It is followed by USA (California), China, Mexico, India, Egypt and Spain (2012 data).
As to European producer countries, Italy and Spain are the major producers of oranges. Oranges are available on the European market all year long: Italian oranges are available from October until the end of May, while afterwards, imported products, coming above all from the near Spain, are still available.
In Italy oranges are produced mainly in regions such as Sicily (52.6% of the total Italian production of oranges) and Calabria (31.7%) and Italy is ranked 5th among the major producers of oranges of the world fruit and vegetable market (according to a statistical survey done by FAOSTAT in 2005) with more than 2.5 million tons of oranges produced in a year.
The production of oranges in the USA is also important. In fact, it has increased of 34% to the detriment of the European production of oranges, which is decreasing because of more and more frequent drought episodes.
The exports of oranges at a global level should increase of about 5%, also thanks to the US production increase.
In 2009 the world trade of oranges assigned to the fruit and vegetable market was of about 8,940,000 tons, with about 11% of the production assigned to the foreign trade.
The international trade of oranges continues to grow constantly, with Indonesia and Vietnam that have a strong demand for imports.
The major importers of oranges in 2009 were Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain and USA: on the contrary, the major exporters of oranges on the world fruit and vegetable market were Turkey, USA, South Africa, China and Argentina.
Oranges alone represent 37% of the world imports of citrus fruits, tangerines the 31% and lemons the 21%.
India is 5th in the world for the annual production of oranges (2011): in this non-European country, citrus fruits are grown on a surface of 810,000 hectars, with a production of 7,503,000 tons and a production ratio of 9.26 tons/ha.