Colombia: Due to the crisis, citrus growers in the Southwest are debating between continuing with their crops or returning to farming

Colombia is not only admired for its landscapes and the quality of its coffee. The richness of its soils and the variety of climates have made another line of the economy gain strength in recent years and is now a star product: fruit. And it is that last year was very positive for the exports of the Colombian fruit sector: foreign sales of fruit reached US$1,476 million, an increase of 4.7% compared to 2021, according to reports from Dane. But within this group, citrus became one of the most desirable, highlighting the growth in the exported volume of Tahiti lemon (66%), gulupa (15.6%) and passion fruit (20.2%). However, despite the good results in terms of foreign trade, the local citrus production has been going through a crisis that is leading them to rethink the promising future that they envisioned for the subsector. Bottlenecks Manuel Escobar is a citrus producer from Southwest Antioquia. Apart from taking care of his crops, he leads the Association of Citrus Growers of ...