Spain’s strawberry growers could suffer if the European Union pushes ahead with its agreement of association with Morocco and any similar trade deals with Turkey or Egypt, as they face production costs three times higher than overseas competitors.
This was the claim made by Andalusian strawberry association Freshuelva, which said this week that Spanish exporters were losing market share in traditional destinations, such as France and Germany, due to increasing non-EU imports and greater local production.
In an interview with Europa Press, Freshuelva’s managing director, Rafael Domínguez Guillén, said that sales of imported Moroccan strawberries had risen by 47 per cent during February and early March compared with the same period a year before.
He argued that strawberry production in Morocco, Egypt and Turkey was increasing every year because they were were able to benefit from “far lower” production costs than Spanish growers, while he claimed they could produce greater volumes because they could make use of chemicals, specifically methyl bromide, that were not permitted in the EU.
At the same time, Mr Domínguez said strawberry production in Germany, which typically absorbs around 34 per cent of fruit from Huelva province, was steadily increasing, prompting a drop in Spanish imports.
Despite this, he said that good weather in Spain itself had led to the local market taking 35 per cent of Huelva’s strawberries during March, compared with a typical total of 15 per cent.
In total, the province’s strawberry sector is expected to return to 2009 production levels this year, with volumes expected to be up by 10 per cent from 2010.
