According to data from Uruguay’s Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fish (MGAP) between 2013 and 2015 Uruguay’s citrus producers intend increase the amount of citrus trees under cultivation by 571,537 plants.
That amount represents an 8% increase over current plantings which total 7,181,902. Tangerines will account for 44% of the new plantings, lemons will be 31%, and oranges will be 25%.
Uruguayan producers have increased plantings primarily because they have just received access to the United States market, a change which was announced in a July 10, 2013 press conference.
“Very probably, this will involve the need to reorganize the fields to adapt to the demands of the new market as several agents linked to the citrus industry have already expressed”, MGAP’s official statement explained.
The opening of the U.S. market is something the industry has been waiting 20 years for. Uruguay producers will enter the U.S. market on an equal footing with producers from South Africa, and Chile. Uruguayan producers currently face much higher tariffs then producers from South Africa or Chile when exporting to Europe, the principal destination for Uruguayan citrus exports.
This Uruguayan Business Reports news article is a summarized translation of a news article that appeared in the Uruguayan newspaper El Observador. The original article is available in Spanish here. Uruguay Business Reports translation by Donovan Carberry.
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