There could be a shortage of Spanish clementines on the market for the crucial Christmas trading period, a growers’ leader has warned.

Cristóbal Aguado, president of producers’ association Ava-Asaja, calculates that this season production volumes are “normal” and does not expect the Valencia region to have more fruit than last year, but he complains there is imbalance in the marketplace.

Aguado said: “Fruit maturity has been running late and unfortunately some businesses have tried to export too early. Because some operators have been hurrying the harvest along, pries have been falling because there is too much on the market.

"The situation with the clementine crop is that within a month there could be a shortage, all because marketers have been incapable of understanding that harvesting more than the market can consume is very damaging.”

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