Menton's protected lemon, long defined by strict size and shape rules, has a new lease on life after producers won approval to bring smaller, less uniform fruit under the same Indication Géographique Protégée label.
Until now, only lemons measuring between 53 and 90 millimetres qualified for the IGP Citron de Menton, first recognised in 2015. The updated specification, approved by France's national geographical indications committee in April, extends eligibility to category two fruit as small as 45 millimetres, provided they are used for processing rather than sold whole. Émilie Bazin, an IGP lemon producer and president of the Association pour la Promotion du Citron de Menton, said the change gives growers a way to use fruit that previously fell outside the label entirely. "This category two will let us bring them under the IGP banner, but only for processing," she said.
Production has never exceeded 100 tonnes a year under the label's strict original rules, despite roughly a hundred producers now growing the fruit, up from just ten when the association began its push for recognition two decades ago. Growers expect the change could lift output by 10 to 20 percent and reduce the volume of fruit lost to size or appearance standards each year, with the next harvest due at the end of the year.