The largest lemon nursery consists of 551,227 lemon plants and was achieved by Vivero Citrus owned by José Luis Palacios (Argentina) in Lules, Tucumán, Argentina on 7 August 2012. The nursery was founded 35 years ago and has been slowly growing in size until a recent boom in the lemon industry in Argentina thanks to large contracts from two of the world's largest soft drinks brands. Vivero Citrus supplies all the large lemon plantations in the region and Tucuman is the world's number one exporter of lemons, primarily for industrial use (the essence and lemon oil) rather than consumption. All the plants counted were mature plants ready for sale, another 300,000 seedlings were not included in the total and a further 7,622 orange plants were discounted.