Spanish exporters’ federation Fepex is making restoring profitability to horticulture producers and exporters a matter of urgency for 2005.
President Andres Cuartero, who was re-elected at the federation’s annual meeting late last month amid announcements of dismal figures for 2004, revealed tentative plans to bring order to both Spanish supplies and imports into the EU.
In the short term, marketable production will be brought more into line with demand using the mechanisms provided by the EU fruit and vegetable regime, he said, while entry prices must be respected across the EU for products from third countries, in order to maintain market balance.
In the long term, Fepex is proposing improvement in salads and vegetable production-sector technology, as well as much faster conversion of fruit trees to more marketable varieties.
Among figures presented by the association for the first nine months of 2004, Fepex director José María Pozancos revealed a 2.5 per cent fall in export values despite volumes remaining in line with the same period in 2003. This is aggravated by the steep hike in oil and labour costs in 2004.
Stone fruit suffered the most of any sector with nectarine and peach volumes down by 33 per cent and apricot volumes slumping by 38 per cent on 2003 levels.
Andalusia remains Spain’s biggest horticultural producer closely followed by Valencia, Murcia and Catalonia.
