Citrus Fruit Chain Agrees to Create Consecitrus
Valor Econômico
It was executed yesterday, at the headquarters of the Secretariat for Agriculture of São Paulo, in the South Side of the capital, the memorandum of intent that establishes the Consecitrus, a committee formed by representatives of the producers of citrus fruit and orange juice industries aimed a harmonizing the relations in the productive chain. According to its writers, the committee will be the environment to discuss the parameters for negotiating the prices for the supply of the fruit for the manufacture of the beverage and the strategic issues such as the fall in the global demand of the commodity and the phytosanitary threats to the orchards.
"The Consecitrus is a landmark in citriculture and it will surely change the paths of the segment", said João Sampaio, Secretary for Agriculture of the State and main interlocutor of the negotiations. Citrus farmers and industries have unsuccessfully tried to sit at the same table for years. "It is a new path", said Christian Lohbauer, President of the National Association of the Manufacturers of Citrus Juices (CitrusBR). The entity was created in June 2009 by Cutrale, Citrosuco, Citrovita and Louis Dreyfus, the leading exporters of orange juice in the world.
The first three are national, while LD is of French origin. All of them manage their businesses from São Paulo, which is responsible for more than 80% of the shipments of orange juice from Brazil - which, in turn, dominates 85% of world exports of the commodity. In 2010, those exports should amount to US$ 2 billion, according to Marcos Fava Neves, Professor at the FEA/USP (College of Economics and Administration of the University of São Paulo) and coordinator of the study "The Portrait of the Brazilian Citriculture", released last week.
The three entities that represent the citrus growers have also approved the creation of the Consecitrus, albeit all of them (SRB, Associtrus and Faesp) have considered, as well as CitrusBR, that it is now that begins the hard part of the process - already with the first meeting scheduled for the 8. Apparently simple decisions such as the division of power among the entities of citrus growers, and between them and CitrusBR in future negotiations remain undefined. Disagreements on the parameters that will rule the price negotiations, which have even threatened the very memorandum of intent, will also have to continue being discussed.