Spain’s almond volumes have fallen sharply during the current campaign, with the crop said to have dropped by almost 45 per cent compared with last season, as a result of heavy rains that affected several regions of the country earlier this year.
According to figures from Spain’s national council of dry fruit, total Spanish output for the 2010/11 campaign reached 39,103 tonnes – a decrease of 27 per cent compared with last year’s 53,593 tonnes.
However, the drop in production was far more pronounced in the south-western region of Murcia, where the almond crop fell by 44.6 per cent to 6,200 tonnes from the previous campaign’s 11,202 tonnes.
In a statement, Murcia-based fresh produce association Asaja Murcia blamed frosts during spring and the heavy rains that hit several parts of the region earlier this year, adversely affecting trees during their flowering stage, for the decrease in volumes.
However, the association claimed the lack of a quota for US almonds entering the European Union (EU) was also partly to blame for the reduction in the Spanish crop, claiming that imports were “distorting prices” at a difficult time for the sector.
Asaja Murcia’s Alfonso Gálvez Caravaca said the situation for Spanish almond producers was becoming “ever more difficult due to the fall in prices,” adding that growers faced “ever more arduous circumstances” to receive the minimum income necessary to cover production costs.
