Spain: Intercitrus in crisis meeting with government

Tholen - The general secretary of the Spanish ministry of Agriculture, Josep Puxeu, met with the representatives of the Spanish trade association for the citrus sector Intercitrus today, to analyse the critical situation in this sector. Also the representatives of the autonomous regions that grow citrus were present, with Valencia, Andalucia, Murcia and Catalonia. Besides production related issues, also the functioning of the different sales channels, industrial processing and withdrawing quantities from the market were to be discussed.

Intercitrus has requested the government to finance the withdrawal of 400K MT of oranges and clementines, as there are no other commercial options remaining for the present campaign. This concerns a total of 60 mln. euro, according to Antonio Muñoz, president of Intercitrus. Muñoz indicated the market saturation, as exports have increased with 8 to 10% compared to the previous campaign.

Meanwhile several large agricultural organisations in Spain are organizing different demonstrations against the low citrus retail prices in front of different supermarkets. The last demonstration was in front of a supermarket in Castellón and a next demonstration is planned in Alicante.

Publication date: January 11 2007
Author: André van der Wiel
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