Market prices of citrus fruits are stabilizing in the U.S. after Canada removed retaliatory tariffs on September 1, 2025.
Ottawa exempted majority consumer goods it had previously taxed with 25% duty worth US$2.98 billion. The aim is smoothening ongoing bilateral negotiations and strengthen privileges accruing to members of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
So far under the USMCA and other agreements, 85% of goods between the two North American neighbors trade duty-free.
Trade war however downsized the January-June 2025 imports by Canada from the U.S. by 1.5%, year-on-year.
Citrus is one of three agricultural categories whose tariffs Canada has erased, alongside dairy/poultry, grains/fruits and beverages/spirits.
This had a positive effect on the Philadelphia terminal market on September 3, 2025, where price steadiness was manifest.
According to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), both local and foreign citrus categories at the terminal showed price parity.
Wholesale limes steadied pricing at $33-36 per 38-pound carton of mostly seedless types from Honduras and Mexico.
Lemons showed rate stability, too, at the $40-48 range per 7/10 bushel carton for the California crop. This is even as Argentina’s lemons traded at between $33 and $35 per 17 kg.
Oranges on the other hand hovered between $22 and $28 per 15 kg cartons, mostly originating from Chile.
Navels from South Africa cost $22-30 per 15 kg while Valencias from California fetched $34 to $40.50 per 7/10 bushel carton.
The above data puts the weighted wholesale rate for oranges at about $1.4 a kg, a robust rate historically.
Conversely, Valencia oranges in the U.S. had averaged $20.18 per box (average 85 pounds/36.3 kg) in the 2023-24 season. This translates to around $0.55/kg or $0.25 a pound, wholesale.
Thus the removal of Canada’s tariffs had an indirect stabilizing effect on American citrus prices. The rates could have been higher due to logistic costs from mainly southern Hemisphere origins. Indeed, Canada imports much citrus from its southern neighbor, per the below stats.
Canada-U.S. Citrus Trade and Market Prices Statistics
Canada ranks 53rd in global citrus exports at 17.702 tonnes worth US$24,640, as of 2023, according to the World Bank. The United States, on the other hand, leads world exports of fresh or dried citrus at $18,516,790 (2023). Canada is one of its major importers and therefore impacts trade flow and price direction, regionally. In 2024, Ottawa imported US$200.71 million in fresh or dried citrus from the United States, per Trading Economics.
How important is the United States as a citrus source for Canada?
In 2022, the United States was Canada’s 3rd biggest citrus import source, commanding 4,130.030 tonnes. Only China at 10,327.7 tonnes and Mexico sold more citrus to Canada that year.
Which are the historical wholesale rates of American oranges?
In the 2021-24 period, orange prices trended as follows, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
| Timeline | Price [per average 85-pound box of fresh fruit] |
| 2023-24 | $20.18 |
| 2022-23 | $18.89 |
| 2021-22 | $19.05 |