Uruguay exported 30,000 tonnes of citrus between January and the beginning of June with a corresponding value of US$20m, according to official figures.
Around 60 per cent of this was shipped to the US, with a further 20 per cent going to Europe and the rest to Russia, Brazil, Canada and the UAE, among other destinations.
The figures reflect the growing shift towards the US, where import tariffs are lower and average prices higher than in the European market.
“Citrus demand has always been very high in the US, which imports increasingly large quantities during its counter season,” Federico Montes, general director of agricultural services at the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, told El Observador.
“It is a market that will continue to grow and remains extremely attractive.”
Montes added that the Chinese market was also beginning to generate important revenue for exports since it reopened in 2017.
Despite the longer transit time to China, Montes described it as another complementary and interesting market for exports.
A report by trade promotion agency Uruguay XXI shows that the average export price for Uruguayan citrus reached US$825 per tonne in 2017, compared with US$505 per tonne a decade ago.
More than 7,000 tonnes of citrus – equivalent to 6 per cent of the annual crop –were lost as a result of rain and hail storms that swept through Salto, the main citrus producing region, last month. According to grower and exporter association Upefruy, the storms affected around 570ha of production.
