Lemon
Two harvests hand over almost all year round: Fino opens the season in autumn and Verna stretches it into summer. The Andarax grows lemons, but the provincial bulk sits in the Almanzora valley.
The lemon is a quiet heavyweight of Almería's agriculture. For the 2024/2025 season, the Junta's Observatory credits Almería with 29% of Andalusia's lemon-growing area and 46% of the regional harvest — some 1,989 hectares and 50,952 tonnes. These are province-wide figures: the territorial citrus analysis places the main basin in the Almanzora, while the Andarax gathers mostly small citrus farms.
Two names structure the calendar. Fino is the early lemon, picked from autumn onwards, thin-skinned and rich in juice; Verna takes over towards spring and holds on the tree without losing quality, allowing a staggered harvest well into summer. At Andalusian scale, these two groups account for most of the marketed volume.
The province also ranks first in Spain for organic citrus area, and a Diputación publication already recorded organic citrus growers in Alhama in the early 2000s — a documented local presence, not a present-day specialisation. In the kitchen its role is immediate: juice, zest and acidity for fish, fried dishes and dressings.
Varieties
- Fino
- Verna