Good forecasts for table grapes

Despite some problems in exports to the UK due to currency differences, overall exports in 2008 rose by 23% by volume and 20% in value.

 

 

Good yields and high quality, is the definition that Joaquín Gómez, president of the Spanish Association of Producers and Exporters of Fruit and Other Agricultural Products, APOEXPA, made of this year's table grape campaign following the FEPEX Committee's meeting in Murcia.

 

 

According to Gomez's estimates reported by agrocope.com, output in Murcia will reach 75,000 tons of seedless grapes and around 30,000 tons of grapes with seed in Alicante, "in line with the previous year".

 

 

The major problems to be faced include exports to England, which are detrimental to producers in Spain due to the differences between pound and euro.

 

 

According to the Spanish Federation of Associations of Growers and Exporters of Fruit, Vegetables, Flowers and Live Plants (FEPEX), export of table grapes to April 2009 stood at 8136 tons, for a value of 11.7 million euros.

 

 

Meanwhile, during 2008, the exported quantity reached 137,000 tons (+23%) valued at 180.7 million euros (+20%), with Murcia, Valencia and Catalonia as the major communities.

 

 

On the import side, volumes rose in 2008 to 1.7 million tons of which 622,000 tons were from non-EU Countries.