The Campaign for Communities

The three major areas of citrus production in Spain, Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia and Andalusia, recorded increases in their production. The main producing country, Valencia, expected a harvest of close to four million tonnes, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Valencian Government.

 

It also confirms that the UPA forecasts for the citrus campaign in Valencia are very positive in terms of product quality and recommends to farmers that take into account the increases produced in plant protection products, fertilizers or diesel to negotiate the price Sales of the harvest.

For his part, the land-ASAJA Murcia provides an''optimal''campaign of citrus in the region with regard to the quality of the productions, as well as in quantitative terms, with an increase in production of more than 20 percent, due in large part to the significant increase in the harvest of lemon.

 

On the other hand, the Andalusian production of citrus in the current marketing year 2008-2009 recorded an increase of 14 percent over the average obtained from the last four years, rising to 1,647,337 tonnes, according to data supplied by the Government of Andalusia

 

According to the secretary general of Agriculture, Dimas Rizzo, the explanation for this rise is that the market has not been saturated, as in the previous campaign, by lemon from other non-EU countries, together with the adjustments made by the sector to reduce the production of previous campaigns. In addition, poor harvests recorded in other producing regions and falling production have led to a more balanced price for farmers.