The sinking of the quotations compromises the future of Valencian watermelon
The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) denounces the collapse of the watermelon in its quotations, as a result of the bearish pressure that in recent years has been exercising the great distribution. Low prices that, according to this organization, seriously compromise the future of this crop in the autonomous community of Valencia, as evidenced by the fact that in a period of seven years their area of cultivation has been reduced by almost 30% .
AVA-ASAJA points out as the main threats of this watermelon campaign, the policy of low prices of distribution, together with the lack of heat in Europe
The significant decline in the area under watermelon in Valencian agriculture is evident after the analysis carried out by this organization of official data published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAPAMA). Thus, the cultivation of watermelon in the Comunitat Valenciana, which until very recently was one of the referents of its horticulture, is in the serious trance of losing its protagonism, to the point of running the risk of being reduced to a presence little more than testimonial within the Valencian agrarian panorama, according to denounces AVA-ASAJA.
According to the figures managed by the Ministry, between 2009 and 2015 the hectares allocated to the said crop in the Region of Valencia suffered a severe decrease of almost 30% from a total of 1,043 to only 743. Last year, According to the estimations of this agrarian organization, there was a slight rebound that placed the surface of watermelon around 1.000 hectares, but this year the land destined to this fruit so characteristic of the summer has returned to descend of very marked way and will hardly reach the 500 hectares.
A recession motivated mainly by a continuous lack of profitability, which has led to both the low prices imposed by the large distribution, and the competition exercised by other regions of Spain of earlier production, such as Andalusia and Murcia, and where the dedicated areas to this crop have been maintained in recent years.
With regard to the development of the current season, AVA-ASAJA regrets that a situation very similar to previous years, to the detriment of the Valencian producers. This year the campaign started at the end of May with attractive prices of between 0.35 and 0.40 cents per kilo for the earliest harvests of Andalusia and, soon after, Murcia. However, the situation has changed radically at this time coinciding with the entry into the market of Valencian watermelon productions. Right now, the field prices offered to producers range between 0.10 and 0.15 cents per kilo, a price bordering the ridiculous if you take into account that the cost of cultivating that same kilo hard down from 0.17 cents.
Some of the major distribution chains have already begun to submit offers to the public of 0.29 cents per kilo
The drop in temperatures in the main European countries has retreated demand and such circumstance also serves as an ideal pretext for large buying chains to negotiate downwards, so that the profitability of the Valencian watermelon campaign is seriously threatened right now.
“The start of summer is proving dismal for the Valencian countryside,” laments the president of AVA-ASAJA, Cristóbal Aguado. “To the disaster of the onion and the potato,” he adds, “with crops destroyed by the farmers themselves in the face of the lack of price, we must now add the problems that compromise the viability of the watermelon. The gradual loss of surface during the last years that has been registering a crop that has been an emblem of our horticulture is a warning for sailors about the future that awaits the agricultural sector if the politicians who govern us, in the Region of Valencia, in Madrid and In Brussels, do not approve measures like a European law of food chain or insurance that rents that contribute to stop this sangría”.
Source: AVA-ASAJA
