The value of Spanish vegetable exports dropped by 17 per cent during June as a consequence of the German E.coli outbreak that was initially, and wrongly, blamed on Spanish cucumbers.
During the month, which followed the claims about the cucumbers on 31 May, the value of all Spanish fruit and vegetable exports dropped by 10 per cent compared with June 2010 to €589.5m.
However, vegetable exports were by far the hardest hit, with sales of a number of key products suffering, among them the value of tomato exports dropped by 47 per cent to €18m, peppers by 33 per cent to €18m and cabbages by 32 per cent to €9.6m.
The value of cucumber exports fell by 56 per cent to €1.8m, according to Spanish customs data released by fresh produce federation Fepex, while total fruit exports also decreased by 7.6 per cent during the month to €458.8m.
In a statement, Fepex blamed the slump in export values on the EU’s “bad management” of the E.coli crisis, arguing that the measures adopted until now were “completely insufficient” to compensate for the damage caused to Spanish growers.
To recity this, the federation added that it planned to present a package of proposed measures to the Spanish minister of rural affairs that it claimed would compensate for the entirety of damages suffered.
