Sales of citrus rootstocks in Spain are plummeting, putting in doubt the future capability of the country’s citrus producers.

According to a Valencia-based growers’ association, figures from the regional executive show that uptake from the region - which accounts for 80 per cent of citrus rootstocks marketed in Spain - fell for the third year to 1.93 million trees in 2008-09, compared to 4.81m on average each year from 2000 to 2006.

This comes in the first year of Spain’s ambitious national citrus plan. Ava-Asaja president Cristóbal Aguado said: “When the plan was approved, we said at the time that given alarming under-capitalisation in the citrus sector, funding help of 40-50 per cent of the costs of variety conversion would be insufficient. We need measures that will reintroduce liquidity into the sector if we want to maintain one of the main competitive values of our citrus; the richness of our portfolio.”

Topics