Spanish producer groups have published details of an agreement between processors and charities to withdraw stonefruit for the juice market in a bid to stop the slide in prices seen in recent weeks.
Under the terms of the deal, which is being backed by the Spanish government and various producer organisations, growers will provide 11kg of stonefruit for every 1kg of juice that is donated to food banks. Growers will be paid €0.26.9 per kg by the European Union. The first withdrawals could be made by the end of this week.
In a statement released on Monday, Catalan grower association Afrucat– one of the producer organisations involved in the agreement – criticised the “indifference of the European commission in the face of the crisis affecting the Spanish stonefuit industry”.
“In spite of acknowledging that the common market organisation had failed to manage the situation currently affecting the industry, [the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development] Dacian Cioloş has not even deigned to respond to our pleas for help,” the statement said.
Afrucat said that from now on the Spanish industry would have to fight in advance to ensure that adequate management measures were in place to deal with future crises effectively. These include reform of the common market organisation; increasing the withdrawal price to at least cover the cost of production; and increasing the amount of fruit permitted to be withdrawn.
Afrucat said there were two main reasons for the current market collapse: Firstly, that the season started 15 days early, forcing fruit onto the market before retailers had a chance to prepare their stonefruit programmes and secondly, unfavourable climatic conditions that limited consumption.
The association further stated that it did not believe overproduction to be the cause of the problem as output was similar to other years. “Far from halting Spanish production increases, we should recognise that we are good producers and that the challenge we face is finding new markets for our fruit, as well as consolidating our presence in existing markets,” it said.
