Grower leaders in the Spanish region of Valencia are calling for a kakifruit trade association, as they forecast that production will take off in the next few years as growers turn away from citrus.
Acreage under production of the fruit has spiralled this past decade, rising by 87 per cent between 2002 and 2008.
Cristóbal Aguado, president of growers’ association Ava-Asaja, would like to see a trade association that encompasses producers, marketing desks and exporters. He said: “Despite everything, the persimmon category is stumbling blindly along with increasing problems in terms of disease. Nor are there any alternatives to the [products from] large multi-national phytochemical companies and, as a sector, it is also ignorant of the experiences of other growers worldwide. So before we are overwhelmed with problems, now is the time to get organised for what we expect will be an upsurge for kakifruit in the next few years.”
Ava-Asaja, which counts a large proportion of the Valencia region’s citrus growers among its membership, believes that production of kakifruit is likely to rise “exponentially”, from 50,000 tonnes grown on 4,000 hectares over the next few years, as the crisis in the citrus sector drives producers to seek alternative crops for their orchards. Aguado said: “Before production shoots up, we need to know the market and to send out missions to explore exactly what the situation is and the alternatives that are facing growers in other production areas such as the US, Japan, Brazil, China, India or Israel. Our growers cannot continue to be isolated.”
Last summer, persimmon production in Spain fell victim to a fungal infection that caused massive fruit drop. Agronomists at the regional executive have managed to identify the fungus, some six months after it struck, but it is feared that last year’s losses will be repeated this summer, as treatment for the disease, known as mycosphaerella nawai, has to be applied in the autumn.
Aguado is disappointed that, although the disease has been known in Korea, a delegation from Spain has not been to the Asian country to find out more. “With citrus in Valencia, we have always been open to visitors from other countries, so why hasn’t an outward deputation been organised in this instance?” he asked.
