SÃO FRANCISCO RIVER VALLEY AS A NEW BELT FOR THE BRAZILIAN CITRUS INDUSTRY

The citrus industry is one of the most relevant segments of the Brazilian agribusiness, being responsible for 40% of the sweet orange production and 60% of the juice processing in the World. Some factors for this hegemony are the adequate ecological conditions, which allows for cultivation without irrigation, and huge land availability. Threats, however, exist especially at the core of national production, in the State of São Paulo. The most important, bacterial and virus diseases, appear with increasingly incidence and destructive power. The Northeast Region, the second national producing region, apparently presents the best conditions for the citrus industry expansion. Among potential areas, the São Francisco Valley appears as one the best options due to the semiarid climate, governmental support and tradition in the irrigated fruit production and export. The region, with 360,000 ha potentially irrigable, is located between 8 and 9° S and 40 and 42° W and altitude of 300 m a.s.l. The annual rainfall is less than 600 mm and the average temperature is 26.2°C, relative humidity of 67% and solar radiation of 3,000 h/year, constituting a comparative advantage to species such as acid lime, lemon and grapefruit. Citrus scions and rootstocks trials have been carried out since the 1990s by Embrapa in cooperation with the private sector in the States of Bahia and Pernambuco, which results are presented in this paper, showing the potentiality of the São Francisco Valley as a new belt for the Brazilian citrus industry.