Sicar Farms cultivates key limes, Persian limes, and lemons among other products. Lime crops are harvested throughout the year and have a peak between March and August. On the other hand, lemon crops are harvested between September and November, and are mainly destined to the fresh and industry sectors.
"Currently, we are in the lime's peak season. 3 or 4 months ago, a 40 pound box (18 kg) was sold for $35 dollars and it is currently being sold for about 8 or 10 dollars. It's a normal situation in peak season, it is a cycle," said Gudiño. Unlike other years, he added, this year's peak season seems to be highly concentrated in the summer months. "We believe this peak season will be shorter due to the cold weather and late rains."
Sicar Farms is a family company that primarily works with citrus, although the company has recently launched a new line of business with tomato, pineapple, and coconut crops. Currently, it has 2,000 hectares of farmland, 1,000 for key lime, 750 for Persian lime, and 250 for lemon crops. The company's goal for 2020 is to consolidate and have 5,000 hectares devoted to citrus crops, namely 2,250 for key lime, 2,250 of Persian lime, and 500 hectares of lemon.
Its most important export market is the United States, as 80% of the company's export are sent there. The remaining 20% is divided equally between Europe and Asia. "Asia is gaining importance; we still have some margin because the protocol between Mexico and China hasn't been opened yet. Only the state of Veracruz is permitted to export to Korea, so the only Asian countries we can export to are Korea and Japan. There will undoubtedly be an increase in business opportunities when the Chinese market opens. "Asia is a big and important market." Brazil isn't big competition for the company in the United States market.
The Ochoa Gudiño Group is composed of Sychar Farms, which owns three packing plants in Mexico, one in Colima, one in Michoacan, and the third in Veracruz; Citrojugo, a plant that processes about 1,000 tons of lime and lemon a day to make juices and oils; and Limex SiCar, its distribution center in the United States.
The company is testing a farming method without pesticides. "Last year, we adopted a new way of working by increasing the use of fertilizers, biological control, and introduced the use of repellents extracted from some products, such as chillies, cinnamon, onions and garlic, to have an agro-ecological approach. Our goal for 2017 is to eliminate the use of all pesticides in our plantations," said Gudiño. "It's not organic farming, but we do plan to eliminate the use of pesticides by combining conventional and agro-ecological fertilization methods."
"Last year, we performed some tests in our ecological plantation and results were favorable. We achieved a better productivity. We are convinced that we can improve. One of our plans is to work on this project so that in the long-term we can have a sustainable agriculture and environmental management," continued the producer. "We know there are more and more export restrictions and we are convinced we should be a step ahead of time, as there could be a total ban on pesticides someday," he concluded.
