Gov't eyes citrus export to US by 2025
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday March 20, 2024 09:38
The country is currently locked in negotiations to secure a supply deal of citrus to the US by 2025, BusinessMonitor was told.
Minister of Agriculture, Fedelis Molao, said in an interview that government was working around the clock to clinch the lucrative US market. “Engagements are ongoing and I can assure that progress has been made and we want to start exporting there by 2025 at least,” he said last week Thursday following a BITC press briefing on the citrus projects.
“Usually it takes seven years to secure the US market as the market is not easy to penetrate,” he elaborated. Botswana is expected to export the first batch of its produce to the Middle East this week, a move that signifies the country’s first-ever citrus exports. The first harvest will feature lemons, followed by oranges, grapefruit and naartjies in subsequent seasons. It is expected that 2, 400kg of lemon fresh fruits is to be dispatched weekly to the Middle East and 3, 600kg to be sold to the local market for the month of March. In April 2024, 9, 000kg will be harvested and be sold both for export and domestic market; in June, July mandarins will follow.
For this year, valencias will be the last crop to be sold for both markets in July, August and September. “Be informed that production will increase yearly for all the cultivars grown and the trees will be at full production maturity at the age of 16 years,” Molao added. Currently about 888 hectares have been planted at the Selebi-Phikwe citrus farm with over 800, 000 different citrus cultivars (plants). These plants consists of amongst others lemons, valencia, navels, mandarins and grapefruits, which will be sold to both the local and export markets. Of the initial harvest, it is expected 70% of the produce will be exported abroad with the remainder sold domestically and in the SADC region. A small portion will be allocated for agro processing into fruit juice and other products. Targeted international markets include Canada, Middle East, the US, the United Kingdom, Asia, China and Japan.
“The Department of Plant Health is currently in negotiations with different protocol market countries for export of fresh citrus from Botswana to the USA, South Korea, Philippines and China. The European Union market has already been concluded,” he said. The Selebi-Phikwe citrus farm is estimated to be one of the largest consolidated citrus developments in Southern Africa, aiming for a production capacity of 70, 000 tonnes per annum. The project is a collaboration between the Mmadinare Multi-purpose Cooperatives and Byldevallei South Africa. The initiative is led by Byldevallei Citrus Investor, Pieter Scholtz, with 30% equity held by local investors.
The country’s annual citrus production is around 3, 165 metric tonnes, representing only 2.64 percent of the local demand. Apart from Selebi-Phikwe citrus project, there are a number of such projects in Botswana operating at small scale. Botswana currently has 172 citrus growers with over 90% of these being small scale farmers that produce citrus on fewer than five hectares of land. Such growers could be found in areas such as amongst others Leshibitse, Loologane in Kweneng, Lentsweletau, Tutume, Chobe and they are mostly into citrus production.