Asaja-Andalucía accuses operators of abuse of power and non-compliance with the country’s food chain law
Spanish agricultural union Asaja-Andalucía has denounced citrus processors for buying juicing oranges at below-cost prices, despite juice prices being historically high in the futures market.
It accused the Spanish processing industry of abusing its dominant position and offering farmers prices that do not even cover the costs of production in breach of Spain’s Food Chain Law.
“We continue to see how in recent years the price of orange juice in the futures markets is at its historical maximum, more than double that of two years ago at this same time, an upward trend that is currently still not reflected in the price at source,” Asaja said.
In a statement, Asaja-Andalucía pointed out that there is currently high demand for orange juice on the international market as supplies are short. This is mainly due to low production in Brazil, the world’s leading producer, as a result of the drought and diseases that have also affected other big producing countries.
Ricardo Serra, president of Asaja-Andalucía, urged the agriculture ministry to intervene to protect growers. “The producer must be protected, not only because he is the weakest link in the chain, but also and especially because without him, without the farmer and without the production in the field, everything else falls apart. And for the farmer to continue in the field, production has to be profitable,” he said.
Asaja also called on the government to monitor European imports of oranges from third countries where production costs are much lower than in Spain and growers are not required to meet the standards as Spanish producers in terms of the use of phytosanitary products and other environmental conditions.
The union said it did not want to see a repeat of last season, when orange prices plummeted unexpectedly from February onwards due to the influx of large quantities of oranges from outside the European Union, mainly from Egypt.
Seperately, one of Florida’s oldest citrus growers is shutting down in another blow to the state’s struggling citrus industry. Alico, a major supplier to Tropicana, said it will not invest any more money into citrus operations in Florida after the current crop is harvested in 2025.
