EFE.- Between January and July of this year, exports of citrus fruits and their derivatives increased by 28.3% and reached a total value of $ 912.3 million, above 711 million dollars in the same period of 2020, reported this Saturday the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader).
In addition, the agency explained that based on data from the Agrifood and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP), the main destination for foreign sales of Mexican citrus fruits –orange, tangerine, grapefruit and lemon, mainly- is United States, followed by the Netherlands, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
In a statement, Sader indicated that the international sale of processed citrus-derived products “represents an opportunity to attract more foreign exchange.”
As an example, he gave orange juice exports that grew 36% in the January-July period, totaling 278.5 million dollars, while in the same period last year they totaled 204.8 million dollars.
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The agency recalled that “citrus fruits are highly consumed fruits in Mexico and one of the main export products, with characteristics that distinguish them ”and also in foreign trade are the following derivatives: juices, essential oils, peels and purees.
Agriculture in Mexico highlighted that the country is the second world exporter of lemon, with 17.7% of the value of world sales, while the orange is the perennial crop with the largest planted area, in addition to the fact that the country is the fourth world producer of grapefruit.
“Mexican exports of this group of fruits represent 78.22% of citrus imports from the United States, this being the main target market,” it was stated in the note.
In mid-August, Sader reported that Mexico’s agri-food trade balance registered a surplus of 4.857 million dollars in the first half of 2021, the third highest positive balance in 27 years.
The figure is the result of 22.588 million dollars of agricultural and agro-industrial exports from January to June, and 17.731 million dollars of imports, based on figures from the Bank of Mexico.
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