In 2019, Peruvian exports of citrus fruits (mandarins, tangelos, oranges, grapefruit and lemon) are expected to grow by 10% over the 180,239 tons dispatched in this year's campaign, stated the general manager of ProCitrus, Sergio del Castillo Valderrama.
"In the medium and long term we will maintain a growth rate of around 10% in citrus exports from Peru. This year, due to the volume produced, we expected exports to increase by 15%, but the reality was that they increased by 8% (when compared to the 166,616 tons shipped in 2017)," he said.
The increase in these shipments in 2018 was lower than expected due to climate issues, which caused a physiological disorder in the fruit that caused that they did not meet the requirements to be shipped to international markets (mainly, the fruit was stained), he added.
"I believe that the growth will be led by the late tangerines (W.Murcott)," he said.
In 2018, early tangerines, such as the Satsuma, had a good export performance, but in 2019 there may be fewer volumes. The tangelo has stabilized (to nearly 20 thousand tons per year) and the growth of lemon shipments has been surprising, in fact, there are companies that are going to invest in this crop.
In addition, he said, grapefruit has had a global recovery, many of the areas where this fruit was planted (such as in Florida, United States) were replaced by tangerines and oranges due to price issues; However, once again there is a demand for grapefruit, especially the red variety, which has recently been planted in Peru.
Source: agraria.pe
