According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Production, Misiones has 5,766 acres of citrus production and an annual harvest volume of about 75,000 tons of fruit, 65% of which are tangerines and the rest are oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes. Commercial production of citrus is currently distributed in different parts of the province and there are about 950 producers engaged in this activity.
"About 75% of the farmers are located along National Route 14 and they market their products through Cooperativa Agroindustrial Limitada, which is located in the city of Leandro N. Alem. Another small group is located in the municipalities crossed by National Route 12. They are independent and market their production outside the province," stated the Ministry of Agriculture in Misiones.
The main market for the production of Misiones is the European Union. This year, due to the devaluation of the Euro, the products are more expensive for buyers. The situation forced the producers' organizations to work on finding and opening new markets. Thus, a new experience with the Philippines was initiated and they are about to enter the Brazilian market. The neighboring country would be an excellent opportunity for Misiones, because of the high demand that it can generate, especially considering the low freight costs.
The Cooperativa Tabacalera de Misiones (CTM), the biggest international marketer, reported on the first days of May that the plants had received 15,859 tons of citrus, mostly of early tangerines of the Okitsu, Okitsu Lujan, Nova, and Clemenules varieties, included in the total 260 tons of grapefruit and 600 tons of lemon.
These levels of production have been achieved largely thanks to the work that was done in the last ten years, in which there was a strengthening of the citrus activity and of the productive and institutional sector (Producers Associations). The PROSAP / IDB 899/0 OC-AR project, "Strengthening Plant Protection Services of the province of Misiones," which aimed at increasing productivity, quality, competitive production units and profitability within a framework of environmental sustainability, was executed between 2005 and 2009.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Produccion Misiones recalled that "starting 2010, an improvement plan was implemented through the 'Competitiveness Program of the Great North', whose main objective was to identify the problems affecting the sector's competitiveness. In this context, we worked on increasing the production of citrus plants certified under current SENASA regulations, a task that was performed thanks to the extension and improvement of the citrus nursery of the Cooperativa Agroindustrial de Misiones Limitda, with which we avoided the entry of plants of unknown origin. Moreover, unproductive varieties that did not reach volumes of more than five tons per hectare were replaced for other proven varieties in the area with yields of 35-40 tons per hectare."
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