Australian Citrus: Navigating a “Perfect Storm” of Production from 2025 to 2026

How A Formidable 2025 Citrus Season Is Shaping Our Expectations For 2026 | Dracula Citrus^™

Formidable is a word we use when we see, feel or experience something impressive, intense or difficult, and that’s exactly what the 2025 citrus season was. Orange and mandarin production reached record levels, totalling an impressive 545,000 and 225,000 metric tonnes (MT) respectively. The retail and wholesale landscape was intense due to increasing competition from Chile, Peru and South Africa and the introduction of ‘swinging’ tariffs made forecasting and price stability for customers difficult to maintain.

While this sounds like doom and gloom, 2025 was the largest year Pinnacle Fresh has had to date. To borrow the words of our team, this year was also “fun”, “demanding”, “challenging” and “rewarding”. It was the year where the sun went down and came up again in a string of long days and we learned to control what was in front of us.

It was also the year we expanded our team with three new faces. Todd, Emily and Andrea joined our team in a baptism of fire, riding the waves of logistics and warehouse challenges, moving record-breaking volumes, and navigating the minefield of red tape due to new tariffs. Yet, as Ethan reminded us when things looked certain to unravel, “it’s just fruit”. This simple mantra kept us grounded and focused, allowing us to hold high expectations without breaking under pressure.

Superior Fruit, And Lots of It.

While having more fruit in the market sounds positive, an abundant market creates a cost price squeeze. While we had a superior product, retailers now had the option of cheaper fruit, and with operational expenses as they are in Australia, this resulted in a year of high volumes and tight margins.

No where was this pressure felt more than in the United States. In April 2025, the trade landscape shifted when President Donald Trump introduced a 10% tariff on citrus from major Southern Hemisphere suppliers. As Todd noted in our yearly review “tariffs suck”.

The situation became more complex when South Africa raced to ship their entire crop before their tariff increased on August 1st.

This influx of cheaper fruit creates a volatile environment where generic citrus struggles to survive. It’s also one of the reasons why Dracula Citrus^™ weathered the storm. Our point of difference in the market creates an emotional advantage for us. One that we have noted through steady market growth and massive wins in 2025 despite the hardships.

Our Wins For 2025

When the sun eventually did come down on the Australian citrus season and we could breathe again, we celebrated some (very) hard earned wins.

Pinnacle Fresh officially became the largest importer of Australian Citrus into the United States, despite the tariffs and the brutal competition, capturing approximately 71% of the orange market and 51% of the mandarin market.

We piloted our cold pressed Dracula Blood Orange Juice in the U.S. across selected stores and online via the Little West website.

We also exported a company-breaking record of 562 containers (we needed a lie down after that)…

Aaannnndddd

• Albertsons, Hy Vee and Nugget Market became new retailers for the 2025 season
• We saw strong growth with Kroger, Publix & Wegmans
• Our customers were genuinely grateful for the hard work, supply consistency and high service level throughout the season

Despite the volatile global trade landscape and significant logistical hurdles, Dracula Citrus^™ survived the daylight and further cemented our place as a global market leader. None of this is possible without the hard work from our team and our partners.

Without the growers Dracula Citrus^™ would cease to exist and it’s the hardships and dedication that makes our success possible. We’re grateful for the trust and belief they have in our goal to connect more people with Australian Citrus around the world.

A Sales Team Like No Other

Our greatest strength is our team. And as cringy as this will sound, we do kinda feel like a family.

I said it, ewww, gross.

When challenges hit, the whole team was on deck. We seamlessly bridged the gap between Australia and the rest of the world with our U.S. based team, adapting to remote work as the norm and flowing this on easily to real-life team events like the IFPA. We also connected with our community, launching the neighbourhood Halloween initiative offering blood oranges instead of candy, in a move that data shows aligns with a powerful consumer appetite for healthier holiday alternatives.

What Does 2026 Look Like?

As we look toward 2026, we are staring down the barrel of a historic shift in Australian citrus. Trees planted during the rapid expansion of 2019 are now reaching full maturity. This isn’t just a bump in the road; it is a structural change. We are projecting a “perfect storm” of production, with Australian orange volumes forecast to hit 590,000 metric tonnes in the coming season marking a sixth consecutive year of growth.

Having more citrus isn’t always ideal, especially when we can be undercut by cheaper, duty-free competitors. But we have something they don’t and we will be doubling down on the things we do best:

Premium Branding

Year after year we have elevated ourselves above a commodity product. Our brand investment continues to yield results and engage customers, especially around the Halloween season, and it’s backed by fruit that eats better. While Halloween is massive in America, we’re seeing the Halloween trend extend to other continents, keeping the door open for markets outside of the U.S., thus mitigating the risks of over-reliance on a single region.

Expanding Our Product Range

The launch of our cold pressed Dracula Blood Orange Juice was strategically planned with consumer insights and optimised fruit yields. As the global beverage landscape shifts towards a “Not From Concentrate” (NFC) and cold pressed varieties, the global NFC juice market is projected to hit USD 6.6 trillion by 2034, a remarkable USD 2.6 trillion increase from it’s 2024 valuation of USD 4 trillion.

With North America holding the dominant share of the market (exceeding USD 1.2 trillion), our 2026 expansion into the U.S. is perfectly timed. By leveraging premium Australian fruit and localised American production, we’re meeting the rising demand for high-value functional beverages that are minimally processed and nutrient dense. The result is a vibrant, longer-lasting juice that preserves our flagship colour and flavour long after the Halloween period, and extends the Dracula Citrus^™ Australian blood orange offering from a 5-month seasonal window to a 9-month premium presence.

Entering The Asian Market In A Meaningful Way

The breadth of knowledge, citrus varieties and grades of citrus within each variety our Australian growers can produce at high quality capacity is both impressive and advantageous. While opportunistic spot trading will always exist, our aim is to build programmed, reliable partnerships around the globe. With the U.S. becoming a tariff heavy environment, we will seek opportunities to increase volume supply across Asia where shipping times are significantly lower in comparison to the U.S. We’re able to leverage our geographic proximity and superior biosecurity record as a defensive “moat” against our competitors proving that Dracula Citrus^™ isn’t just sweeter, it’s fresher, safer and faster to market.

Final Word From Us

We know the landscape for 2026 will be competitive but our brand is strong, our team is “humming” (their words) and our quality is unmatched. We’ll continue to shift consumer eating habits, making healthy options more accessible and desirable.

While we’re mentally preparing for the long days, unexpected challenges and high adrenalin that comes with the citrus season, we go in armed with a strong team, amazing growers and a solid system to support us. The stakes are high but as we proved in 2025, formidable is just a word and at the end of the day, “it’s just fruit”.

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