Strong restructuring of the country’s main lemon producer

San Micheal, the main producer of lemons in the country and the largest industrializer of this citrus fruit in the worldhas decided to restructure its global strategy.

The company of the Miguens and Otero Monsegur families, of which ANSES owns 26%, will back off with the expansion of the fresh fruit business -with which it had come to produce in Peru and South Africa- and will focus on industrialization, a business more stable and with greater added value.

As part of this shift in focus, the company announced it on Wednesday will sell its fresh fruit businesses in South Africa and Peru. With the funds from this operation, of which he did not disclose the amount, strengthen your financial structure and will strengthen the investment aimed at expanding the offer in its industrial business with which it supplies natural ingredients to strategic customers around the world.

The buyer is the Spanish company Citri & Co, which, in addition to adding the two subsidiaries, has agreed to be exclusively responsible for the marketing of the fresh fruit that San Miguel will continue to produce from Argentina and Uruguay.

Born in Tucumán more than 65 years ago, San Miguel is the largest citrus producer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Before this sale, the group owned 7,848 hectares of plantations owned and leased to third parties. In South Africa sells 1,130 hectares with mainly orange plantations; Y in Peru, 1,348 hectares with mandarin, avocado and grape plantations. They also had a packaging plant in Peru.

In Tucumán, in addition to an industrial plant, they have 3,413 hectares with lemon plantations and in Uruguay 1,957 hectares of lemons, mandarins and oranges.

It will now focus on the industrial business, where it now processes over 340,000 tons of lemons from its operations in Argentina, Uruguay and South Africa (In that country, even if the fruit activity will maintain that of industrialized products).

San Miguel has a 15% share of the world production of natural ingredientsa business in which Argentina is located first place among producing countries, with a global share of 60%.

This business reported revenues of $ 7,573 million in 2021, up 51% from the previous year, as the company reported in its financial statements. Meanwhile, fresh fruit hit $ 15,290 million, up 24%.

San Miguel produces high value added products, such as essential oils, juices and dehydrated peels which it exports to food, beverage and fragrance and flavor companies around the world.

In addition, the company will continue with the production and export of around 60,000 tons of fresh fruit from Argentina and Uruguay, which will be marketed by Citri & Co.

The final closure of the deal is subject to several approvals and is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.

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