South African producers and exporters of lemon juice (and no doubt exporters of citrus fruit) received an unwelcome surprise early January 2022 that a California-based company producing various citrus juices – Ventura Coastal LLC – had petitioned the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) to investigate shipments of lemon juice from South Africa and Brazil, claiming these were being sold on the U.S. market at less than fair value (LTFV), i.e. being dumped.

On 11 February 2022, the USITC voted to continue the investigation, finding in its preliminary investigation that there is a reasonable indication that there is material injury (or the threat thereof), or that the establishment of an industry is materially retarded by subject imports (South African and Brazilian lemon juice). The preliminary investigation also established that subject imports had grown to 28.1% of the import market in the 9-month period to September 2021, thus exceeding any negligibility criteria set out in the legislation which may otherwise have resulted in a possible early termination of the investigation.

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