Citrus insights

The Jeonnam Rural Development Administration (Director Kim Haeng-ran) announced on the 24th that it has developed two types of black tea liquid sticks (lemon flavor, grapefruit flavor) using black tea concentrate rich in active ingredients such as catechins. The newly developed black tea liquid sticks are characterized by applying a fermented alcohol extraction method to increase the catechin content by about 2 times, not only the representative active ingredient of black tea, theaflavin. In particular, the black tea used as a raw material was produced using the "rapid black tea manufacturing technology that significantly reduces manufacturing time compared to conventional methods" for which the Jeonnam Rural Development Administration has applied for a patent. This has reduced costs and increased the theaflavin content, making it significant from both a technological and economic perspective.

Recently, four containers loaded with 108 tons of Zigui navel oranges were shipped to the Middle East, successfully arriving in Dubai on December 24. The shipment of navel oranges, valued at $150,000, represents the first order signed by the newly operational Hubei Agricultural Products Dubai Exhibition and Sales Center. The center was jointly built by the Hubei Rural Supply Chain Group and China Agricultural Innovation Port, and officially began operations on November 26. Located in the Deira district of Dubai, the center has an operational center and warehouse area exceeding 2,000 square meters, and is staffed by a team of over 20 people. It focuses on exhibiting and selling a range of agricultural products with Hubei regional characteristics, including Suizhou flower mushrooms, Zigui navel oranges, and Enshi selenium tea. Liu Zheng, the head of cross-border business at the Hubei Rural Supply Chain Group, explained, "By setting up a production warehouse in Yichang, we centrally purchase and pre-process Zigui navel oranges, then ship them in batches through logistics and the overseas warehouse established in Dubai to achieve localized distribution. The entire cold chain logistics process controls product loss to within 5% through temperature control technology." Image source: Pixabay 2025 International Fruit and Vegetable Report reserves all rights. For reprinting, please contact the International Fruit and Vegetable Report for permission and credit.

At this hour, the recent announcement of debt exchange by the citrus company San Miguel is stirring discontent among the more atomistic creditors. The Tucuman firm, which is one of the world's leading lemon exporters and is heavily investing in the production of derivatives - such as essential oils and juices - has just announced that it will exchange a portion of its negotiable obligations - due in October of next year - for others with a 4-year term and a lower interest rate. The offer, which was published through official channels and on the company's own website, means, outright, "kicking" the maturities to 2030 and lowering their yield, which goes from a rate of 9.5% to 8% annually. This is what has caused anger within the market, where some directly label it as "ruinous" and claim that, when the company is doing well, it decides to "turn its back" on its investors. The debt restructuring affects negotiable obligations series X, XI, and XII, for up to $120 million in total, ...