Ledesma produced 120,600 tons of citrus on nearly 3,000 hectares of fruit plantations in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta during the 2016 season. This result was 20% higher than in the previous year and broke the production record of the past five years. 68% of the production was of oranges (82,400 tons), and the rest was distributed equally among grapefruits (20,200 tons) and lemons (18,000 tons).
The increase was due to better production yields and to the incorporation of new hectares. In 2016, the packing plant processed about 72,700 tons of fruit for packing and nearly 35,000 tons of citrus.
The main export destination was the European Union (Spain, Holland, Italy), followed by Russia and Chile. In 2017 there are strong expectations for the possibility of being able to export, once again, to the United States, a market that was about to recover. However, president Donald Trump decided to postpone this decision.
In the domestic market, Ledesma supplied customers of the Central Market and peripheral markets of the Greater Buenos Aires, as well as different customers and supermarkets within the country.
Ledesma processed 105,000 tons of citrus in its processing plant to produce nearly 7,000 tons of juice, i.e. 10% more than in 2015. They produced 3,600 tons of orange juice concentrate, 1,960 tons of grapefruit juice concentrate, and 1,380 tons of lemon juice concentrate.
Nearly 90% of the orange and grapefruit juices were sold in the local market for the production of soft drinks and flavored waters. The lemon juice was destined almost exclusively for export, mainly to Europe and the United States, and to a lesser extent to China and Japan.
Ledesma also produced nearly 300 tons of essential oils, 160 tons of which were orange essential oil, 40 tons of grapefruit essential oil and 100 tons of lemon essential oil.
Nearly 90% of total sales were exports to the US and Europe.
Source: clarin.com