The Government stated this Monday that it aims to promote projects and productive measures aimed at consolidating Argentina as a world leader in the lemon market, with the aim of generating more jobs and federal growth.
The chief of staff, Juan Manzur, ensured that the goal is “that Argentina manages to consolidate itself as a world leader in the lemon and its derivatives market”, to “generate more jobs and boost the production of one of the strategic sectors of our economy”.
Manzur held a meeting this morning with the Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, and the president of the Argentine Northwest Citrus Association (Acnoa), Pablo Padilla.
“We join efforts to consolidate growth and production in the country,” said the Chief of Staff after the meeting on his Twitter account.
The official pointed out that the meeting was projected “generate more jobs and boost the production of one of the strategic sectors of our economy”.
We join forces to consolidate growth and production in the country
Beside @KulfasM and the head of the NOA Citrus Association, Pablo Padilla, we plan to generate more jobs and boost the production of one of the strategic sectors of our economy. pic.twitter.com/UxSOWZ32qT
– Juan Manzur (@JuanManzurOK) May 2, 2022
He pointed out that the “integration of the public and private sectors is essential for the growth of an activity that occupies more than 60,000 hectares of crops, maintains 50,000 direct jobs and, in Tucumán alone, represents half of the foreign exchange generated by exports.” .
“We aim for Argentina to consolidate itself as a world leader in the market for lemons and their derivatives,” he assured.
For its part, Kulfas described the meeting with Acnoa as “very important” and highlighted that “the citrus industry is having a very good performance and they came with investment projects that are underway.”
“We are working to strengthen these projects and showing an Argentina that is standing up and that has a lot of growth and that is much more federal than in the past,” the minister stressed.
He also emphasized that “it is clear that for this government headed by Alberto Fernández, the key is industrial development”, and remarked that “industry is a great generator of jobs and has a lot of multiplier effects on employment and on regional economies. ”.
While, Padilla, expressed his “optimism” with the “advance” of the projects presented to the Government to generate more foreign currency and more employment in the region.
“The truth is that we are very happy and very optimistic with the progress of these projects that generate more foreign exchange and more work for a region that needs them,” Padilla told reporters at Casa Rosada, after the meeting with the officials.
He said that “the proposals that we are bringing as a sector have a greater impact in the long term and are going to mitigate these ups and downs that the world is experiencing and even climate change that affects production.”
“Furthermore, it will enable us to continue positioning ourselves as an activity to continue being world leaders if we can carry out these ideas,” said Padilla.
The citrus leader attended accompanied by the manager of the entity Ricardo Quintana; Martin Galiana, from San Miguel Global; Martin Carignani, from Citrusvil, and Fernando Carreras, from Citromax.
“We have been developing projects to generate added value from our activity to sustain the growth of production in which Argentina is a leader,” assured the head of Acnoa.
In this regard, he argued that the lemon production of northwestern Argentina “It means 65% of the production of industrial lemon derivatives in the world.”
Therefore, he stressed that producers want to “innovate in sophistication in order to generate greater added value to use all the production that is generated in northwestern Argentina.”
He pointed out that the “different lines of work” were analyzed, and maintained that “the support of the national government and the provincial governments of northwestern Argentina is very important.”
He also added that “financing is being sought to carry out these ideas that would generate more work and more foreign currency in the country in the short term.”
Consulted by Telam Regarding this financing, he specified that “it is for the installation of new industries and a research and development center, to seek alternative uses to those already existing in lemon production.”
On the other hand, he maintained that after the recent meeting of governors of the Norte Grande, in Salta, the president of Tucuman, Osvaldo Jaldo, gave them the peace of mind that the gas supply “will be there” to sustain production.
“The issue has been resolved and the activity is very much in line with the management of the national and provincial governments, which assure us that the activity, which is very short and highly demanding of gas, will be able to develop normally,” concluded the businessman.
