Provincial agriculture is experiencing one of the worst moments in memory, but if there is a sector that has had a particularly bad period, it is citrus fruit, which started the new season fast, far from making up for last year’s losses. disappointing way. And the rainfall recorded during the flowering period resulted in reduced harvests added to the unharvested fruit as a result of low prices. will reduce producers’ income by about 42 million euros. It’s a bad start for a campaign that still needs to be carefully monitored for the impact of competition from third countries on profits.
The citrus sector, most of which is concentrated in the Vega Baja region, has not yet come out of the tunnel. Last season was actually going to be forgotten. To the disaster of the first half of the campaign, Heavy fruit flow from South Africaa situation that creates the saturation of the markets, which minimizes the commercialization of local lemons and oranges.
But things did not end there, because the icing on the cake was the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Paralyzed export to eastern countriesIt causes its main suppliers such as Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Morocco to forward their goods to the rest of Europe. As a result, 70% of the oranges and 20% of the tangerines in the second half of the season were left unharvested due to the impossibility of marketing. The sum of all these events was a loss of 140 million euros.
Well, the new campaign didn’t start much better, partly because of the negative developments that have been going on since last year. According to the information given by José Vicente Andreu, president of Asaja Alicante and a citrus producer, he brought that unharvested fruit with him. 30% reduction in late orange productionIt represents economic losses of around 100,000 tons and 30 million euros. It should be added to abundant rains during the flowering period of lemonsIt is a verna variety that continues on its way with 75,000 tons of verna and will reach a market price of 12 million Euros.
“The situation – complains Andreu – continues to be complicated, as production costs continue to rise rapidly due to the rise in energy, fertilizers and phytosanitary products, while uncertainty remains about the prices that farmers can charge farmers”.
Paco Girona, a producer from Orihuela, points out to Paco Girona, who takes refuge in lemons only because they are oranges:was losing money due to unfair competition from other countriesLemons maintain more stable prices, but despite this, “We depend on goods that can come in from South Africa, Argentina or Turkey. It’s impossible to be calm,” he argues.
Carles Peris, secretary general of La Unió, warns that “we are on the doorstep of our fourth consecutive citrus campaign with a below-average harvest”, which he has requested from both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Generalitat. launch promotional campaigns It serves both domestic consumption and export.
Control of imports and extension of cold treatment
The citrus sector is demanding greater control of imports into the European Union, as well as an extension of the cold treatment currently applied to oranges from South Africa. La Unió denounces that interventions with pests from third countries have increased by 41% by August and therefore it considers it necessary to seek treatment with standard criteria.
The Citrus Management Committee, on the other hand, requested an investigation from the EU, considering that South Africa was chasing chaos in European ports by sending 2,000 containers that it knew would come to a standstill because they were not exposed to low temperatures.