A supply shortage has made the fruit more expensive than mangoes, pineapples, chicken fillets and beef burgers

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

It may not not quite approach the avocado crisis of 2018 but a lemon supply shortage has led to a 300% surge in the price, making them more expensive than mangoes, pineapples, chicken fillets and beef burgers.

In one Sydney fruit shop, lemons were priced at $13 a kilo, nearing the peak price reached by bananas ($15/kg) after cyclone Yasi in 2011. However, they are still far off the peak price for avocadoes of $45/kg (or $9 for each piece of fruit) reached last year.

A spokesman for Citrus Australia said lemons were not mass-produced in Australia over summer, and most have to be imported from the United States.

And while shoppers may be able to cope, takeaway shops are feeling the thin edge of the wedge.

Lily Yenice, from Golden Pide in Sydney’s Surry Hills, said staff were serving limes instead.

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“We were paying about $3 for a kilo – it’s come nearly up to $10,” she told Guardian Australia.

“We ended up getting some limes, which were cheaper than the lemons. We go through at least two or three kilos a day. We’ve tried to manage it by cutting it into smaller slices, but still.

“I feel lots of people don’t use it when we serve it – but we still put the lemon with our pide and our gozleme as well.”

The shop had no plans for what it would do if prices stayed high: “What can we do? We still have to get it.”

Sam Yilmaz, owner of Our Kebab and Pide on Oxford Street, said the lemon situation was “crazy”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lemons on sale for $13 a kilogram at a grocer on Oxford Street in Sydney. Photograph: Naaman Zhou/The Guardian

“Lemons are getting expensive, and people, I don’t know why, they know lemons are expensive, when they come they keep asking for lemons. They ask for lemon after lemon, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

But he said his shop was coping for now.

“We don’t use lemons that much. One box will last us maybe two weeks. It doesn’t really affect us. Maybe a fish shop is a different story. But some people, I don’t know why, but they keep asking for extra lemon, it drives me crazy.”

However, Farzad Saraf, the owner of Erskineville Fish and Chips, was more pragmatic.

“We use lemon in the business,” he said. “It’s a cost to the business.

“It fluctuates. They are a bit more expensive now. It’s not a major problem. We still use lemons.”

A spokesman for Citrus Australia said lemons were “traditionally more expensive in summer”.

“Australian lemons are not widely available during summer,” he said. “The light supply coincides with higher demand as consumers add lemons to recipes for added zest.

“Stores will continue to offer a mix of imported and local lemons in late February and March until more local lemons are available … Australian lemons will then be in store until November.”