From Orchard to Market: Agronomic Challenges, Postharvest Losses, and Structural Inefficiencies in the Citrus Value Chain

The citrus industry is of utmost importance to global food systems due to its significance in supplying food, ensuring nutrition, providing employment in rural areas, and earning foreign exchange revenues. Yet, there are emerging challenges in terms of sustainable and competitive citrus production due to agronomic inefficiencies, losses at the post-harvest stage, and structural limitations in the marketing system. The impact of these factors adversely affects not only the productivity and quality of fruit but also limits farmers’ access to high-value domestic and international markets amid rising pressure from climatic uncertainty and resource limitations. This research uses both empirical analysis and literature review to critically analyze citrus production, post-harvesting operations, and marketing systems using the framework of the value chain. This paper looks at production techniques on the farm level, harvesting operations, post-harvest handling, storage, and transportation, along with other important aspects such as market institutions that contribute to the overall performance of the value chain. From this analysis, it is evident that poor quality of planting material, poor irrigation scheduling, unbalanced fertilization, presence of pests and diseases, and poor extension services continue to be significant challenges limiting sustainable production from orchards. Also, increased temperatures, unpredictable rainfall patterns, and a shortage of water are making production increasingly difficult and resulting in inferior fruits. Improper harvesting methods, poor handling of fruits, poor grading and packaging, poor cooling and preservation technologies are key post-harvest challenges leading to considerable quantitative and qualitative losses of the produce. Besides, fragmented and poorly coordinated supply chains, lack of transparency in the markets, information asymmetries, price fluctuations, intermediary dependency, and poor adherence to quality and safety requirements further limit the profitability and exports of the fruits. However, innovative approaches like precision agriculture, climate-smart agricultural practices, improved cold storage technologies, digital traceability and e-commerce platforms, and contract farming have great potential for improving efficiency and profitability along the citrus value chain.