Persimmon growing has become, to a certain extent, the stabiliser for citrus fruit productions in the Valencian region of La Ribera.
This is how Virginia Estevez, manager of the Algemesí cooperative sees it. “The successive campaigns where the profitability of citrus crops has dropped have been the reason behind the crop replacement, which has allowed the farmers to remain on their lands and additionally, obtain greater profitability.”
“Thanks to the persimmon, the market has regulated itself and we are beginning to find the balance in this diversification, where stone fruit should also be included,” the executive explains.
The cooperative, which this year ended the season with a marketed volume of persimmons of seven million kilos, plans to reach 25 or 30 million kilos in 2020. In order to do this, in 2017 it will reconvert a part of its current 52.000 m² of installations, today devoted to citrus fruits, into a space for preparing persimmons.
Around 3,000 farmers are engaged in growing citrus fruits, persimmons and stone fruit in the Algemesí cooperative. In recent years, around 8,000 hanegadas, which previously were devoted solely to citrus fruits, have been replaced by persimmons
Regarding the end results for this product, Esteve remarks that “although the start of the season was tough due to the excessive offer, and in November some problems also arose, the campaign turned out correctly in the end.”
Citrus fruits. The cooperative’s management team is immersed in a strategic plan, which started off in 2015 and will end in 2019, the cooperative’s 100th year anniversary, a year in which certain refurbishments should be finished, amongst them, the achievement of greater profitability per square metre. “Our aim is to grow only 22 varieties of citrus fruits as opposed to the 42 we are growing at present; only maintaining the ones that work best in our fields: Valencias, Navelinas, Arrufatinas, etc. We want the arrival of 2020 to mean the optimum arrangement of our production, which includes around 80-85 million kilos of citrus fruits, 30 of persimmons, 3 of sweet fruits and 8,000 kilos of pomegranates.”
With the first part of the citrus campaign now over, and a volume of almost 40 million kilos having been reached, these months may be qualified as “correct”. The fruit harvest levels dropped by 25% compared to last year’s amounts, but the quality and the demand from the markets were in line with this.”
At the end of the season, the cooperative’s overall volume will be around 80 million kilos. “I would venture to forecast that this will be an acceptable year. Although we will not be able to talk about top prices as in the 2003 campaign, it will be reasonable enough. And it will mark out a difference compared to last year.”
