Spanish citrus growers agreed on December 17 to put plans for strike action to achieve higher prices on hold.
The stoppage had been called for in the days just before Christmas, an immensely busy and traditionally profitable time for the sector.
The membership of the three main producer associations in the principal Spanish production region of Valencia - La Union, Ava-Asaja and UPA-PV - were all behind the proposed strikes.
However, on Wednesday afternoon they issued a statement putting off their plans. Strike action has been averted in the short term as the regional government in Valencia had shown itself to be “pre-disposed to negotiation”, the joint statement said. There was also a word of warning, however. “The organisations in Valencia will go down the path of industrial action once again if the minister for the environment, rural and marine affairs does not demonstrate the same attitude as the regional executive in coming up with concrete proposals to alleviate the citrus crisis in the short term, to correct the structural problems of the sector,” the statement read.
The three organisations last week presented their regional government with a list of actions to be taken in the short and in the medium term to lift the gloom surrounding their activity. A further list was presented to the national government this week.
The Valencia executive has agreed to work on most of the areas highlighted in the document and now the growers are asking that the national government makes a similar commitment and engages the entire citrus sector in Spain, including producers in the regions of Andalusia, Catalonia and Murcia.
The three Valencia groups said last week that the strike was “the only way to express the deep unrest that exists in our whole sector for the collapse of the clementine and orange season brought about by the large European retail chains”.
The producers involved had also hoped that their message would show their customers that growers are having to sell their product below cost at levels as low as €0.04 a kilo for clementines and €0.07 a kilo for oranges, with the euro almost at parity with sterling.
