At the beginning of 2017, the Association of Citrus Producers of Peru (ProCitrus) projected that the country's citrus exports would grow by 5% this season, however expectations have improved and by mid campaign the new projection indicates that shipments will increase by 10% over the previous year.
The CEO of ProCitrus, Sergio del Castillo Valderrama, said that in the current campaign, citrus shipments would amount to 140,500 tons, while in 2016 Peru exported 127,788 tons of citrus. In the 2015 campaign, Peru exported 115,122 tons.
This citrus campaign began in the last week of February and it is expected to run until the first week of September. "We are in the middle of the campaign but it peaks between June and August, that is to say the country still has to dispatch its biggest volumes."
He also said that the increase in citrus exports would be led by mandarin exports. In that sense, he said, the country was about to start dispatching late mandarin varieties, such as the Tangelo Minneola and W. Murcott.
Regarding markets, he said the ranking would remain the same as in the previous year, i.e. the United States would continue to be the main destination with 34% or 35% of the total, followed by the United Kingdom with 26%, the Netherlands with 15%, and Canada with 11%. These four countries concentrate more than 80% of the Peruvian offer.
China
Sergio del Castillo also stated that 1.5% of the Peru's citrus supply was sent to China. "The Asian giant acquires more than 1.5 million kilos because we mainly send the W.Murcot variety to this market, as it's a traveling variety (i.e. it arrives in excellent condition to China after traveling by sea for 40 days).
In that regard, he said, there is an increasing interest in this variety which competes with the fruit from South Africa and Australia.
Source: agraria.pe