Sergio del Castillo Valderrama, general manager of Peru's Citrus Producers Association (ProCitrus), reported that, a week before this year's citrus season came to an end, exports amounted to 106,200 tons.
In this regard, he said, the country had exported 67,400 tons of tangerines, 30,000 tons of tangelo, 6,700 tons of oranges, 1,700 tons of limes and 400 tons of grapefruit to date.
He said ProCitrus would have the final figures of the volume of shipments in this campaign in late September. However, he estimated that the country was going to dispatch another 1,000 tons of citrus, so exports would amount between 107,000 tons and 107,500 tons, which would generate a turnover of about USD 100 million.
"The last shipments of Minneola tangelo and late varieties of tangerines, the Fortune and Malvasio varieties, will be exported this week, but it all depends on the shipments of orange," he said. He said that orange shipments in September were high because there was a small window, as the oranges produced in the northern hemisphere haven't entered the market and the harvest in the southern hemisphere has ended.
He also said that there could be an additional demand for oranges globally, since South Africa stopped shipments of orange to Europe, because of the black spot, and Russia stopped importing food from the European Union, the USA, Canada, Australia and Norway (in response to sanctions imposed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine).
"We will produce orange in the jungle until October/November and they are very good at this time because they have a good Brix degree, but it will depend on the price in these markets," he said.
Sergio del Castillo said Peru produced Navel oranges and orange juice from the Valencia variety, which is the most widely exported. In this regard, he said the Navel orange had the ability of being stored for a period of 90 days, so producers could save it and sell it in the local market when it reached a high price, "so they have no incentive to export."
He also stated that the destinations markets for the citrus were the same as in the previous years, with the UK leading, followed by the Netherlands (where the fruit is sent to northern and eastern Europe), the USA and Canada. "These four locations account for 80% of total exports of citrus," he said.
What's next
Del Castillo said that next year's citrus production would be similar to this year. In this regard, he said, there had been some uncertainty about how the production would be due to the warm temperatures (which have persisted in the Peruvian coast in recent months), but that they had noticed that the Satsuma tangerine (the earliest variety) had flowered well, which allowed them to deduce there would be a high production.
He also noted that 500 new acres of citrus, mainly of tangerines, had been planted this year. These new areas will come into production gradually, just like the young plants that are already entering the stage of adulthood, he said.
"There are new varieties of late tangerines, such as the Fuhrer and Nadorcott varieties, that have grown a lot and are beginning to yield their first productions. Additionally, we have grown the Israeli and Californian varieties. That is what is growing in Peru," he concluded.
According to ProCitrus, Peru currently has 17,000 acres of tangerines, 25,000 acres of oranges and 20,000 acres of limes.
Source: agraria.pe