The repeal of the Agrarian Promotion Law in December 2020, which directly affected production costs, could hinder Peruvian citrus volumes from 2025, Agraria.pe reports.

Sergio del Castillo, general manager of the Peruvian Citrus Association (ProCitrus), said that the sector expects to export about 270,000 tons of citrus in 2023

These quantities include mandarins, oranges, tangelos, grapefruit and lemons, "which would represent a slight increase of 2.2% compared to the 264,140 tons shipped in 2022," he noted.

However, Castillo said that the industry has observed a decline in early mandarins, oranges and tangelo. 

"The crisis of recent years, such as the increase in logistics as well as production costs, has caused entrepreneurs to put on stand by their expansion plans, because it is no longer the same crop with the same expectations as it was before 2020,” Castillo told the publication. 

Regarding the law repeal, he explained that citrus “is definitely a crop that has been greatly affected by this change in the rules of the game that does not allow it to have a growth projection", he said.

According to Castillo, investments in the citrus sector were halted in 2021, and currently practically no new citrus areas have been cultivated. 

Furthermore, the executive said that production is being stopped and some producers have made the decision to pull up old plantations of Satsuma, Minneola, Dancy, Malvacea, Murcott, among others.

"If no more (citrus groves) are planted again, the supply of Peruvian citrus will decline. We will still maintain this inertia between 2023 and 2025, but three years from now we will see how this affected Peruvian citrus," said Castillo.