Spanish fruit exports increased by 10.5 per cent during thefirst six months of 2009 compared with the same period a year before, largelythanks to major sales growth in several key product categories, includinglemons, watermelons and cherries.
Fruit shipments in the first half of the year totalled 2.9mtonnes, with particular export rises recorded for several product lines,according to data from Spanish producer-exporter federation Fepex.
In citrus, orange exports increased by 12 per cent to 994,059 tonnes compared with the same stage during 2008, while lemon shipments roseby 75 per cent to 316,111 tonnes.
Similar increases were seen with several other categories,with watermelon exports rising by 22 per cent to 195,937 tonnes and nectarinesby 19 per cent to 157,599 tonnes.
Cherry exports rose by 132 per cent to 20,536 tonnes,marking a significant recovery for the sector from last season’s disappointingcampaign.
Germany, which received 22 per cent of total Spanish freshproduce exports during the six month period, was the principal destination forthe shipments, followed by France with 19.7 per cent and the UK with 12 percent.
