Vegetable producers from Spain’s Andalusia region continued to suffer “ruinous prices” during the first three months of the 2011/12 season, with the value of products sold up to November 2011 dropping by 23 per cent compared with the same period a year before.
During the first three months of the new campaign (September, October and November), Andalusian association Hortyfruta said that although the total volume of products sold increased by 5 per cent, the average price paid fell by 22 per cent from the opening trimester of the 2010/11 season.
In fact, the organisation said that “virtually no product” registered positive prices during the period, with returns for tomatoes and peppers dropping by an estimated 30 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.
Other products also showed similar decreases, with a 19 per cent fall in average prices for cucumbers leading to an 18 per cent drop in returns, despite a 7 per cent increase in volumes compared with the previous season.
To address what it described as a “crisis” in the Spanish fresh produce sector, Hortyfruta has called on the European, national and regional authorities to take “immediate, forceful measures” to support growers or face the “disappearance” of the industry and the loss of thousands of jobs.
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