The crisis affecting Spanish Primofiori lemon growers is intensifying.
Ailimpo, the trade association representing the lemon and grapefruit sectors in Spain, has warned that 150-200 tonnes of lemons will remain on the trees this season.
Ailimpo president José Andrés López said: “Profitability for growers is zero. Prices at the farm gate are €0.04-0.06 (3-5p) a kilo, which is far from covering costs and is a disaster for growers.”
López said that over-production is one of the causes of the situation, but that a fall in consumption is also playing a part. According to figures released by Ailimpo, production from the main growing areas in Spain of Murcia, Andalusia and Valencia will reach one million tonnes in the 2008-09 crop year.
The sector has already been introducing measures to try to mitigate the situation, but so far their effect has been minimal. For example, earlier this year Ailimpo suspended sales of Class II fruit in the hope that prices would rise and profitability would return to growers and marketing desks, but this has not happened.
López said: “Over the last two months the situation has not improved at all.”
Latest figures from the Spanish ministry for industry, tourism and trade show that lemons have experienced the sharpest decline in price of any fresh produce on the domestic market in February, falling by 10.66 per cent.
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