Sweet mystery.

AuthorLuxner, Larry
PositionPuerto Rico's citron fruit industry

WAY UP THE FOGGY Puerto Rican mountain town of Adjuntas, the locals grow, pack and export a fruit many people have never even heard of, let alone seen. The mystery fruit is citron--a delicacy mentioned in the Bible, prized since Roman times, honored by Jews during the Sukkot holiday and an essential ingredient in fruitcakes. Puerto Rico today produces 65 percent of the world's citron supply. The remainder comes from Italy and Greece.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Cooperativa Cosecheros de Cidra, a citron farming cooperative founded during World War II and responsible for a third of the island's citron exports. "Our climate is perfect for the production of citrons. Adjuntas has a fresh rainy climate, and citrons need lots of rain," said the cooperative's controller, Vincente Martinez, whose company is one of three in the little-known business.

Martinez, who is happy to give visitors a tour of the operations, said his cooperative exports around 2.5 million pounds of citron a year--almost all of it on contract for Steensma N.V., a Dutch confectioner. Some 90 percent of the fruit comes from the cooperative's 114 active members, who receive $10 per 100 pounds. "There's so much production now, we had to drop our prices." he said. "Before we were paying $16."

Andries DeJong, manager of Citron Export Inc., said total 1992 production weighed in at six million pounds. At 32 cents a pound, this comes to just under two million dollars--slightly less than 1991 exports. Most production goes to Holland and Germany; about 15 percent is exported to the United States.

Approximately 750 acres of citrons are under cultivation. Once the fruit is harvested, it must be fermented in concrete tanks for about three months. Then it is depulped, chopped into tiny cubes of six or nine millimeters each, depending on the customer's needs, and packed into wooden rum barrels lined with plastic bags. "The depulping process can never be automated because each fruit is different," DeJong explained. "Either we would...

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