Spain: official estimates of olive production are fulfilled, with more than 1Mt at the end of January
The official estimates of olive production for the 2017/18 season are fulfilled, with a production of almost 1,050,000 tons at the end of January, according to the new olive oil market bulletin published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment. During the month of January, the provisional figures also show an improvement in the exits in the domestic market and in the export with respect to the previous month, with a total of 113,000 tons.
The new precision agriculture solution Bosch Field Monitoring was presented at FIMA
The application of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things) is getting stronger and stronger in agriculture. It is a segment for which the Bosch group, a global provider of technology and services, estimates a market potential of one billion euros worldwide. According to these forecasts, Bosch has presented in Spain, in the latest edition of the International Fair of Agricultural Machinery of Zaragoza (FIMA), its solution of precision agriculture Bosch Field Monitoring, already installed in crops such as the vineyard, citrus, the red fruits, the tomato and the olive grove. Through this tool, a greater monitoring and control of crops is sought to optimize resources, a growing need, especially in the current context of extreme situations caused by drought and frost, as a result of climate change.
The forgotten ones of the CAP
In spite of what it may seem, not all crops or producers receive direct aid, before single payment aid, from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Spain. In the payments of almost 4,940 million euros that will be paid this campaign in the autonomous communities as a whole, there will be leading sectors with a clear export vocation that will receive almost no direct subsidies from the Community Agrarian Policy. If we analyze them in order of economic importance, we have most of the vegetables and fruits, except for citrus fruits whose producers do charge but little in proportion to others, where no direct assistance from the CAP is perceived. The exception to citrus fruits are those surfaces of fruit and vegetables that come from the decoupling of old processing aids, nuts or beneficiaries who grew fruits and vegetables and other PAC crops.
Spain: AVA ASAJA warns that the agreement with Mercosur threatens the stability of the Valencian rice sector
The vice-president of the rice sector of COPA-COGECA -an entity that brings together the agricultural organizations and the European cooperatives- and leader of AVA-ASAJA, Miguel Minguet, has denounced in Brussels that among the proposals that are being debated these days, in the framework of the negotiations with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), is the importation with a reduced tariff of 45,000 tons of rice. A concession to exports of rice from the territories of the aforementioned alliance, which would have very damaging effects on the European rice sector and, by extension, on the Spanish and the Valencian.
UNIÓ denounces the first cases of poisoning of bees by pesticides
LA UNIÓ de Llauradors has recently denounced the first cases of poisoning of bees that have been detected this year, as a result of the use of pesticides in the flowering of fruit trees, which is usually given from these dates. Thus, in the town of Cheste (Hoya de Buñol), a beekeeper has seen most of his dead bees and beehives practically without activity, which he had installed in a settlement very close to a fruit plantation. He has filed the corresponding complaint with the Civil Guard Barracks of this town of La Hoya de Buñol and now it is the Seprona who investigates the event.
FIMA reaffirms its international leadership, exceeding 240,000 visitors
FIMA 2018 has been confirmed as a benchmark in agriculture 4.0 and international fairs of machinery for the agricultural sector, after a day of closure that shows the quantitative and qualitative leap experienced by this event. As the president of Feria de Zaragoza, Manuel Teruel, explained at the inauguration, FIMA has given way to a show that is at the forefront of the international market in terms of advances and development of agricultural machinery.
The T7.225 AC. of New Holland, best tractor in Spain in FIMA 2018
For the second consecutive edition, the International Fair of Agricultural Machinery has received the "Tractor of Spain" award, one of the most awaited awards by professionals in the sector. A recognition of national prestige that, in the same way as FIMA, aims to encourage the development of Spanish agriculture. On this occasion, the concrete model that has been raised with this recognition is the New Holland T7.225 AC. The professional jury has valued "its great versatility, its efficiency, the renewal of its engine and its harmonious design".
FIMA promotes the transfer of knowledge as a strategic tool
The common denominator of each of the days of FIMA 2018, which has been held at the fairgrounds of Zaragoza from 20th to 24th February, has been the leading role of knowledge as a strategic tool for the future of the sector. In this line, the agri-food professionals have had the opportunity to enjoy more than fifty activities in the framework of the international fair. Activities that formed an extensive program of technical conferences, which would culminate throughout the fourth day of the International Fair of Agricultural Machinery of Zaragoza.
Chile: Exports of fresh fruit exceed 854,000 tons to date
The Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile AG (ASOEX) has recently presented the advance of fresh fruit exports so far in the 2017/18 fruit season. Thus, according to its president Ronald Bown, from September 1st to February 16th, Chile has sent 854,671 tons of fresh fruits to the world, a figure that turns out to be 5.35% less than the volumes sent to the same period last season.
AGRAGEX expects 2017 to close with a 10% increase in Spanish exports of agricultural equipment
AGRAGEX, the Spanish Association of Manufacturers-Exporters of Agricultural Machinery and its Components, Greenhouses, Crop Protection, Irrigation Systems, Livestock Equipment, Animal Health and Nutrition, Forest Machinery, Biomass and Post-harvest; On February 21st, it released information on the Spanish export of agricultural equipment during the last financial year. With official data available only until November 2017, and totaling exports worth 2,127,949,081.08 €, the association estimates that the year will close with a 10% increase compared to 2016, in which, moreover, only an increase of 2.95% had been achieved compared to 2015.