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HE development of the fermentation citric acid industry during the past decade has aroused a great deal of T interest throughout this country and in Europe. The successful commercial production of this acid from sugar by a mold fermentation process, both in this country and abroad, has brought about an entirely new situation with respect to world trade in this commodity. Formerly, the raw material, calcium citrate, was produced almost entirely from citrus products, Italy being by far the largest producer. 33295
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The bulk of the Italian production of calcium citrate was formerly shipped to England, France, and the United States. Because of the development of the fermentation process in this country and our increased output of citrous materials, imports of citric acid and calcium citrate into the United States have practically ceased since 1927. The fermentation process has also been developed in Europe to a large extent. Large quantities of the fermentation acid are produced in England, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and probably Russia, although complete production figures are not available. The former dominant position occupied by the Italian producers of this commodity has thus been lost through new methods intro- duced by scientific research. The development of the fermentation process for citric acid and the various factors which stimulated and brought about the substantial dis- placement of the natural product are interesting. Fermentation Citric Acid in World Trade A number of factors were responsible for the changes which have taken place with respect to foreign trade in citric acid. In 1922 Italy produced about 90 per cent of the world supply of calcium citrate, the raw material for citric acid production. Other countries, including the United States, were largely dependent on the Italian producers for their supplies of this material. Sales of calcium citrate in Italy for both the domestic and foreign markets were con- trolled by the Camera Agrumaria of Messina, a central sales organization formed in 1908 by the Italian Government to protect the small producers by maintenance of a profitable and fixed price. Various schemes of price fixing, export taxes, and methods of payment to the producers were used to regulate and control the market, but none met with any degree of success. After 1922 shipments of Italian calcium citrate and citric acid to the United States, formerly the best market, began to decline. This decline must be attributed in part to the Tariff Act of 1922 which increased the duty on citric acid from 5 to 17 cents per pound and on calcium citrate from 1 to 7 cents per pound, the large increase in acreage of bearing lemon trees in California, our increased imports of concentrated lemon juice, and last, but not least, the large-scale manufacture of fermentation citric acid which began in 1923. The change which took place can be seen from the import figures for citric acid and calcium citrate in Table I.