Valencia-based fresh produce association Ava-Asaja has presented a complaint to Spain’s National Competition Commission against citrus variety club CVVP, claiming that the organisation is attempting to “monopolise” the sale of Nadorcott mandarins.
Ava-Asaja said the complaint had also been made against Castellón-based clementine producer Carpa Dorada SL, which it said held an exclusive license for the variety’s production in the Iberian Peninsula and had reached an agreement with CVVP to hand over management of the product.
In a statement, the association accused the two organisations of having used their dominant position over the variety to restrict competition and control the mandarin’s production and sale.
The action forms part of a series of legal measures that Ava-Asaja is currently taking, primarily against CVVP, through its own Association of Vegetable Variety Operators (Asovav), which counts 200 producers and marketers among its membership.
The group said that it was holding ongoing meeting with grocery retail buyers to inform them of the latest development in its “legal battle” with CVVP and to “make clear” that growers who were producing Nadorcott outside the auspices of the variety club had “not committed any crime”.
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