Wetter weather slows Argentina’s citrus exports

Wetter weather this 2024 season is having an impact on Argentina’s citrus sector, with lower volumes harvested and exported to date compared to last year. Some fruit is being diverted to the juice market, as the industry focuses on sending adequate quality fruit to markets, says Jorge Amigo, president of the Argentine Citrus Federation (FederCitrus).

According to Amigo, the United States continues to be the main market for fresh Argentine citrus fruits, while less volume is destined for Europe. “FederCitrus estimates 290,000 tons of mandarins, 750,000 tons of oranges and 1,700.000 tons of lemons, while grapefruit has become a fruit of limited export and its production will not exceed 55,000 tons.”

The Argentine citrus industry is packing carefully, which has slowed the pace of harvesting. More fruit is also destined for juicing, since industrial products derived from oranges have sustained demand. The quality and health have been acceptable and as Amigo mentioned, significant volumes are destined for the industry. This has an impact on the pace of exports.

The following chart shows the top export destinations for citrus fruits shipped in containers from Argentina’s maritime ports. The data featured below comes from DataLiner.

Argentina Top Citrus Export Destinations | Jan 2021 – May 2024 | TEUs

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

As for the markets: “this season, the trend towards the United States as the main market would continue. The volumes exported to the European Union are not expected to be great, especially for Argentine lemons. This is due to lower prices in that region, affected by the longer Spanish season and shipments from other countries in the Southern Hemisphere. So far, this export season has recorded a drop of between 15% and 20% compared to the same week of the previous year. So far this year, fresh citrus exports reached only 114,000 tons of lemons, 16,000 tons of oranges and 13,000 tons of mandarins,” says Amigo.

Source: FreshPlaza

Click here to read this story’s original report: https://www.freshplaza.com/north-america/article/9644907/wetter-weather-slows-argentina-s-citrus-exports/

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