The weakness of sterling has had a major impact on Spanish grower-exporters in the region of Murcia this past season.

Proexport, the association that represents their interests, released figures from its evaluation of the 2008-09 season on October 20. They showed a 12 per cent decline in volumes of south-eastern Spanish produce to 869,184 tonnes across all fruit, vegetable and salad lines. This significant decline in volume was accompanied by a fall in value of 10 per cent, which was most pronounced in the second half of the season from March to August 2009. The product lines that suffered most were capsicum, melon and watermelon, which registered sales values below cost.

Miguel Durán Granados, president of Proexport said: “The main causes have been weak consumption in European homes, price wars by international retailers, the depreciation in sterling and the difficulty businesses in the sector have had in accessing financing and investing in their operations as well as competition from third countries.”

The UK is Murcia’s main export market, accounting for 31 per cent of sendings, far ahead of second-placed Germany on 21 per cent, the Netherlands on 14 per cent and France on six per cent. Clearly a fall in value of sterling against the euro has had a significant impact.

Proexport is calling on the authorities to help with measures extended to other producer-exporters in Germany and the Netherlands, for example with export credit and recognition for those producers generating green energy through their greenhouse systems.

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