AVA-ASAJA calls for a European law on the food chain to alleviate the collapse of the market of the stone fruit

The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) has called for a European law on the food chain to alleviate the current collapse of the market for bone fruit, as a result of the confluence of a whole series of adverse circumstances. A situation of over-supply that seriously threatens the profitability of the season, and that was born when the sudden and unusual rise in temperatures in late April and early May forced many producers of plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots or Paraguayans to advance the harvest to preserve the condition of the fruit by storing it in cold storage rooms.

At the same time, while demand for this type of products by the main European markets, and especially Germany, was particularly weak and remiss due to the persistence of the cold, a factor that discourages the consumption of these fruits of the early summer. Also, it should not be forgotten that the harvest of fruit of bone has experienced an increase of 7% in Spain and 11% in the whole of Europe. The coincidence of such an accumulation of eventualities, now that the campaign is at its peak, has resulted in the paralysis of the markets.

Although demand in the EU steadily increases, the stocks of stone fruit from producing areas such as the Region of Valencia, Andalusia, Murcia, Aragon and Extremadura are very copious, so the existing supply surpasses the rhythm of demand, something from that takes advantage of the big distribution to push prices down

On average, the contributions have suffered a decrease that is around 30% compared to last year at the same time, according to data managed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

In the meantime, and because of the high stocks in the warehouses and to which commercial output must be given as soon as possible, harvesting of the fruit remaining in the fields is delayed. The situation has reached such an extreme that some farmers complain that certain businesses are violating the purchase agreements they reached and now refuse to harvest the crops.

At the moment there is a nervousness in the face of the collapse of markets that, if they are not decongesting with a certain speed, will seriously jeopardize the normal development of the fruit tree campaign and, therefore, the income of thousands of farmers

“The situation is critical,” says the president of AVA-ASAJA, Cristóbal Aguado, and in full spring the big distribution makes its August again. The Government and the European Union have to consider the possibility of putting in place as soon as possible a withdrawal mechanism that will help to alleviate the markets and, of course, they must realize that measures such as the approval of insurance income or a law of the food chain at the community level that serves to correct this kind of imbalances that condemn to death the activity of farmers”.

Source: AVA-ASAJA

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