The regional government in Valencia is pouring e1.7bn into a citrus strategy plan that aims to reduce costs by a staggering 30 per cent over the next six years and better compete on key export markets such as the UK.
The elaborate and ambitious plan has been drawn up the agriculture department of the regional executive with stakeholders: producer associations, unions and major co-ops as well as consumer organisations and was presented on June 10 by regional minister Juan Cotino.
New varieties are a key element in the strategy and the regional executive expects to introduce 30 new cultivars to extend the season for lemons, easy-peel and oranges to a full nine months. One of the key thrusts in the Valencia announcement is to move away from an overdependence on clementines which in recent seasons have been overproduced at some points in the season and brought disappointing returns to growers.
In order to ease pressure on markets, Cotino announced plans to divert up to 20 per cent of citrus volume to the production of high quality juices, with related investment into the processing industry a key factor.
The stated aim of the plan is to bring costs down by almost a third and central to this is a reduction in the small-holding nature of the production sector by promoting the amalgamation of smaller producer organisations and co-operatives together. The plan also puts in place measures to bring more young people into the industry with kick-backs to the tune of 80 per cent of the cost of investment for those young growers entering the industry in joint production enterprises.
Of course a key element in the plan is for promotion on external markets where the UK will benefit through Foods from Spain and campaigns already running - such as that organised by Intercitrus - will receive a further boost.
Valencia - by far the largest producer of citrus in Spain which is in turn the European market leader - also hopes to focus on opening up new markets and has cited Japan, Korea, Mexico and China as potential targets.
The plan has been welcomed by stakeholders in Spain. A spokeswoman for producers organisation Ava-Asaja said: "It's marvellous and lowering costs by 30 per cent will really help us be more competitive in the UK. We should be able to gain market share from Morocco, Egypt and Turkey and with new varieties to extend the season, from Argentina as well. We urge the regional executive to act as soon as possible on its aims for variety development given it could take up to 10 years to bring any new fruit to market. We would like to see concrete measures for other crops in our region too such as stone fruit, vegetables and salads."
Anecoop also participated in drawing up the plan and its president Juan Vicente Safont told freshinfo: "A significant part of the plan's activities are centred on concentration within the co-operative sectors a goal Anecoop has been working towards for the last 30 years. It is important to stress that only with adequate funding will this plan achieve its results."
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