Spain’s fruit exports between January and August this year fell by an estimated 3.3m tonnes or 13 per cent compared with the same period of 2007, with the volume decrease particularly marked in the citrus sector.
According to newly-released figures from Spanish national grower-exporter association Fepex, overall fruit and vegetable export volumes dropped by 3.48 per cent – totaling 6.1m tonnes – with the sharp fall in citrus volumes judged to be the principal cause.
Orange export volumes fell by 17.5 per cent to 922,592 tonnes, mandarins by 32 per cent to 533,226 tonnes and lemons by 45 per cent to 195, 904 tonnes.
Despite this, the season was by no means all bad news for the Spanish fresh produce sector. Fepex found that export volumes of stonefruit – specifically cherries, plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines – increased by 11 per cent during the period to around 523,772 tonnes compared with the same months during 2007.
Vegetable exports during the eight months also experienced an overall export uplift of 11.5 per cent to 2.8m tonnes, with volume increases particularly pronounced in tomato exports, which rose by 12 per cent to 730,387 tonnes.
In spite of the figures, Spain’s citrus sector expects export volumes to recover this season, although these are believed unlikely to reach levels seen during the 2006 harvest.
