Mozambique's Citrum exports citrus fruit to Europe

Mozambican company Citrum exported 1,400 tons of oranges and grapefruit to the European market during the current campaign (2008-2009), according to the chairman of the Office to Support Small Investments (GAPI), António Souto.

 

GAPI, which is the institution that “saved” Citrum from imminent bankruptcy in 2007, drew up a citrus fruit production strategy and searched for a technological partnership, which made it possible for the company to re-launch its project to produce and export oranges and grapefruit and also invested some US$1.6 million in improving the company’s citrus groves.

 

Souto also said that Citrum, a project that is being carried out in Boane district in Maputo province, expects to export approximately 2,500 tons of citrus fruit in the next agricultural campaign, after small investments made in the companies citrus groves.

As well as the foreign market, the company is also selling around 200 tons of oranges and grapefruit on the local market, including Mozambique’s juice industries.

 

The European market is the main destination for the fruit produced by Citrum, but Souto said that the idea was for the company to guarantee supply both to the national and regional markets, and to start looking towards Asia.

 

“The Asian market has shown it is open to our products, but we are still making contacts with a view to exporting to some of the countries,” the GAP chairman said.