The succession of bad campaigns due to the retraction of international markets affects one of the main productions in northern Argentina. A traditional citrus production was dismantled and migrated to sugar cane and pecan nuts.
“From bad to worse,” says the saying that best describes the scenario of citrus activity of lemon in Tucumán, the locomotive of the sector in the NOA. A satellite study of this crop in the province determined that the area with lemon farms was reduced and fell back to 2017 levels.the product of a combination of factors that could further aggravate the scenario for the 2025 campaign.
According to the results of a work carried out by researchers from the INTA Famaillá Agricultural Experimental Station, it was determined that since 2017 citrus production in Tucumán showed significant growth, reaching a maximum in 2021 with 51,972 hectares. Since then, The measurements showed that there was a sustained retraction in the triennium 2022, 2023 and 2024 to an area of 42,317 hectares, similar to that of 2017. For the investigation, the specialists used images from the Landsat 8, Spot 6 and 7, Sentinel 2A satellites, provided by the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) and the European Space Agency.
“The causes of this decrease could be related to the drop in profitability experienced by the activity during the last three campaigns, low prices of fruit for industry, lower exported volumes of fresh fruit, gradual increase in production costs, competition from other markets and unfavorable national and international socioeconomic context”, maintains the work of Christina Morales and Pablo Benedetti which was presented at the VII International Congress of Territorial Planning and Geographic Information Technologies (VII CIOTTIG), held last November 2024 in Acapulco, Mexico.
In another study, also by Morales and Benedetti, more Rocío Portocarrerofocused on the department of Burruyacu, the one with the largest surface area with lemon farms, it was detected that the hectares that were no longer used for this crop migrated to the production of sugar cane (45%), to soybeans (20%), 15% remained as bare soil and 20% as new fruit plantations. Another of the main concerns of citrus producers are the abandoned fields due to health risk, nearly 12,000 hectares, much more after the detection, in August 2024, of the insect that transmits Huanglongbing (HLB), considered the most serious disease. devastating citrus fruits worldwide.
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The reasons
Hernan SalasAssistant Director and Coordinator of the Citrus Program of the Obispo Colombres Agroindustrial Experimental Station (EEAOC), explained to this medium that there are various reasons that have impacted the Argentine lemon export market. One of them is the excess of fruit worldwide, which also generated problems in Spain (300,000 tons were left unharvested) and in South Africa, countries that are large producers and exporters. And he highlighted that while Argentine products pay a 15% entry tax to enter the European Union, those from South Africa do not have this tax. The researcher highlighted that the problem affects both the fresh fruit market and its derivatives, which are oil and concentrated juice.
The setback scenario was completed with the low prices paid in the United States market, which, although growing, does not meet the expectations of Tucumán and regional producers, given the shrinkage of the European Union market. The string of yellow alerts is completed with the decrease in demand from Russia, a market for which 40,000 tons were destined but which in this campaign was reduced to 30,000, always for fresh fruit.
Times of changes
In dialogue with Scopethe producer Diana Chediakwhose family has been dedicated to the production of lemons for export as fresh fruit and for processing in the industry for 40 years, confirmed that for the 2025 campaign he will no longer have lemons because he dismantled his farm which is in El Chañar, 25 kilometers northeast of San Miguel de Tucumán. “Medium and small producers are the ones who suffer the most from the lemon crisis, we suffer from it, so 15 years ago we made the decision to diversify, it was already unsustainable,” he said.
At that time, it started with an incipient production of pecan nuts, which has now multiplied and is exported – along with a handful of small producers – to the US, China, Brazil and Spain. “There is a market and demand does not stop growing, hand in hand with greater consumption of dried fruits worldwide,” he said. An advantage of having dedicated so many years to the citrus activity is that all the machinery, from those used for irrigation to the maintenance of the fields, are the same as those needed for walnuts. “It is an interesting place to start because, although Tucumán is still experimenting with the improvement of crops, good seedlings are obtained that already bear fruit after four years,” he said. He stressed that having abandoned citrus farming, his fields are only used for walnuts and sugar cane.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
