Spanish citrus inter-professional body Intercitrus has elected a new president amid swingeing budget cuts and continuing internal rifts.
Jorge García was elected to the top office last week as a representative of private sector producer organisations and immediately offered an olive branch of dialogue to try and win unity and agreement.
He said: “My position is to try to get all the different electoral colleges within Intercitrus to talk face to face, without asperity, and to try to forget the problems of the past. If Intercitrus shows its intention to carry on growing and there is no desire to block that, it will be much easier to draw down financial support from the authorities, both regional and national. I am confident that next year we will not have budgetary problems. After the situation last year, we have all learned that we need more humility and tolerance to reach agreements that will benefit the whole sector.”
For the 2009-10 season, Intercitrus approved a budget of €185,000 (£160,000), a drop of €109,000 on last year, effectively keeping the organisation mothballed.
Manuel Lainez, director general of agriculture at the Valencia regional executive, was present at last week’s AGM and told delegates that the authority was ready to work with the sector on pest and disease control, research, progress of the season and Intercitrus campaigns, as well as developing shared strategies - but there were conditions.
He said: “For all this we need a strong inter-professional body with which we can establish permanent dialogue and understanding; an organisation which can take decisions that affect and influence the marketplace and the quality of the citrus offer. Ultimately this is vital as it has an impact on the whole citrus sector and on the profitability of every link in the chain.”
The past season has proved little short of disastrous for the citrus sector in Spain, according to Intercitrus’s presentation at the meeting. Production was abundant, but there was a large proportion of small sizes that were unsaleable. The reform of the EU’s fruit and vegetable regime also meant that aid for fruit destined for industry was eliminated and so for oranges, prices slumped well below profitability.
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