Citrusvil moves to open up new markets

Engaged in cultivating citrus for over 40 years, Citrusvil is a comprehensive company that began with fresh produce and later extended this to the industrial sector. Today, 13% is earmarked for the former, while 87% is for the latter. Citrusvil’s main markets are the EU (within which the UK is at the top), followed by Russia and then all of the other countries with a very small percentage, with Canada at the top.

“This is why the market diversification strategy is vital to compensate and balance this portfolio of clients that today depends very much on the EU and Russia. In five years, we hope to reduce deliveries to those countries and add new ones,” explains Diego Ruggiero, business manager at Citrusvil.

This year they will add Indonesia with lemons, where they have already been working with mandarins, as they have with the Philippines. With President Macri’s trip to Japan, a frank dialogue was also taken up again with the country, as well as health negotiations to open it up in the short-term. As a result of Japan’s interest, South Korea has also shown interest, sending its ambassador to visit Tucumán. Lastly, the great challenge is China, which has shown signs of interest. Citrusvil travelled there with the presidential mission this year. An innovative project is also currently being carried out in Tucumán on landscape contours to cultivate lemons at the foot of mountains with a technique that enables surface run-off to be reduced, since it can cause soil erosion, by slowing up the rainwater so the plants can benefit from it. This water now flows slowly into reservoirs and is used as additional irrigation in winter when there is no rain.

“So, we can increase the yield of these plantations with environmentally friendly management.”