The first part of the sector’s campaign has seen an increased rate of variety availability.
The campaign has made significant progress regarding varieties. “We have experienced a first part of the campaign that was slightly speeded up for both mandarins and clementines”, different sources from the sector informed this magazine, also coinciding in the same statement.
The high temperatures recorded ended up affecting the quality and, in the case of Clemenules, this also affected its harvest period, which finished almost a month early, at the end of December and the beginning of January, when it came to a short standstill attributed to this lack of quality. To this was added the fact that at the same time, the lack of cold weather in Europe did not encourage a very active demand.
Within this setting, opinions became diversified and where some qualified it as a correct campaign, others remarked that “the 20% drop in production has not been compensated by the prices”.
Clemenules. Last year there was an overproduction in Clemenules, with around 25% more volume than usual. On the other hand, during the current season, the opposite has occurred and the reduction in this variety could have even reached 30%.
“The best years for Clemenules are way behind us and the previous queen of the variety panorama, particularly in the province of Castellon, is starting to decline regarding planted surface area,” sources from a cooperative in Castellon explain.
Spanish citrus fruit exports rose by 16.3% year-on-year during the months of January-August 2015 (21.5 points more than in the same period of the previous year). Foreign sales of Spanish citrus fruit recorded a new annual maximum figure, making a total of 1,920.3 million euros.
The Valencian Region holds the first place in total exports, with 65.6% of the national total; followed by the Region of Murcia, with 21.8% and Andalusia which represents 7.2% of the total national exports.
