According to Sergio Ramirez Castañeda, a producer of lemons based in the Valley of Apatzingan, the reduction in the production of lemon in the state during the second half of 2015 has led to atypical prices. Producers are being paid up to 7 pesos per kilogram and expectations are these prices will help alleviate the crisis that has characterized this year, as producing a kilogram of lemons costs less than 4 pesos. According to Castaneda, prices should remain stable for the next two months.
The ex-president of the Lemon Product System in Michoacan said the price of a kilo of lemon would range between 6.50 pesos and 7 pesos between July and November because of the cyclical downturn in the availability of the fruit; an unusual event that will be favorable to the sector, as prices were below 4 pesos per kilogram and producers could not generate profits.
"It is unusual that we achieve these prices in these months. They will help us face a very difficult, critical, 2015 in which producers were having trouble paying their loans, as the fruit was being traded between 3.50 and 4 pesos per kilogram and we had no profit margin," said Ramirez Castaneda.
He said they didn't expect prices to increase and that a kilogram of lemon was being sold in the capital of Michoacan for between 10 and 12 pesos per kilogram; a price he considered was fair for producers and final consumers.
"We still have about a month with these costs, which we expect will continue until November so that producers have an opportunity to overcome the difficulties that have accumulated during the year," Ramirez reiterated.
He also said that the lemon intended for the industry had achieved a historic price of 3.30 pesos per kilogram, a price that producers hadn't seen in years and that would underpin the regional economy, while strengthening the recovery caused by the increase in the price of fresh lemons.
The Valley of Apatzingan sends up to 5,000 tons of lemon per day to the industry and 3,000 tons per day to the local market, which according to the current values amounts to 37,500,000 pesos a day.
Slow growth in exports
In the last five years, Michoacan's lemon exports have rebounded by three percentage points, from 8% to 11% of the 800,000 tons produced annually, said Ramirez Castaneda. The preference of the international market for Persian lime and consumption of fresh lemon in the country have triggered a slow growth in the foreign marketing of the citrus.
30 percent of the lemon is captured by the industry, 59 percent goes to the local market, and 11 percent is devoted for export, a scheme that, according to Sergio Ramirez, is due to the high per capita consumption of citrus in the country and the similarity in prices between the fruit consumed in the domestic market and the fruit exported.
"Mexico is a big consumer of lemons, so the packers are in no hurry to export. Additionally, the international markets prefer Persian limes. We are very comfortable and the country absorbs much of our production," stated Ramirez Castaneda.
Source: cambiodemichoacan.com.mx