The Peruvian Citrus Association (ProCitrus) projected Peru would export 270,000 tons of citrus this year, i.e. 2.2% more than in the previous year. Regarding the individual behavior of each product, Sergio del Castillo Valderrama, the general manager of the guild, said they expected this year would be similar to 2022.
Del Castillo indicated that early mandarins, oranges, and tangelo have been on a downward trend for some years, but that lemons and late mandarins are growing. He also said that the replacement of tangelos has been accelerated by the crisis of recent years. He recalled that until 2020 the usual thing was to change tangelo for late mandarin varieties (Tango, Nadorcott, W. Murccot), but now even those varieties that were interesting are no longer as attractive as they were before 2020, so they aren't growing as before. "In fact, in recent years citrus fruits have been replaced by other crops with higher profit margins or with a sustained incremental demand, such as avocado,” he stated.
The amendment of the Agrarian Law paralyzed investments
According to the general manager of ProCitrus, this lower dynamism of mandarins is due to the repeal of the Agricultural Promotion Law (Law 27360), in December 2020, which affected production costs, and citrus is a crop with very little profit margins.
“The crisis of recent years, such as the increase in logistics costs (shipping costs), as well as production costs (labor), has forced entrepreneurs to evaluate and put their expansion plans on standby because these crops are no longer as appealing as they were before 2020. This crop has definitely been greatly affected by the change in the rules of the game that don't allow us to have a growth projection,” he stated.
Producers stopped investing in citrus starting in 2021 and today there are practically no new areas of citrus planted, he said. “The fall will be compensated by the growth of the areas that had already been sown, but that is going to plateau for about 3 years. From then on, if nothing new is sown again, the supply of Peruvian citrus will decline. We'll find out what will really happen to Peruvian citrus fruits after 2025."
Source: agraria.pe