This year's stone fruit campaign is about to end and the agricultural unions fear that the initial forecasts seem too optimistic. Storms and the closure of international markets continue to weigh on a sector that is likely to suffer a 20% decline in the production volume that had been initially expected. To make matters worse, the price increase that should have been recorded, given this shortage, has not arrived, so the crisis continues.
"The production should cost about eight or ten cents more than it currently does," said the UAGA union's spokesperson for fruit issues, Vicente López. "We are not being paid what we should for what we produce," denounced UPA representative José Manuel Roche.
Producers believe that the quality of the products will be similar to that of previous campaigns, but they assume that this is not enough to bring the sector afloat. In addition, they warn that large distributors "are putting us under a lot of pressure to keep prices low. The grower cannot do anything against that," said López.
For now, the estimates published by UAGA predict the harvest of 21,000 tons of apricots (12% less than in 2017), 280,000 tons of peaches (15% less), 167,381 tons of nectarines (-16%), 7,500 tons of plums (-27%), 72,000 tons of apples (19% less) and around 65,500 tons of pears (similar volume to last year's). The only production that will grow will be that of cherries, with 41,500 tons, 15% more.
Staggered varieties
Araga fruit spokesperson Miguel Ángel López lamented how the huge impact of the weather on this year's campaign has made it impossible to offset the "disastrous" results achieved in 2017. However, he acknowledged that the different peach varieties have ripened in a staggered manner, and that this has facilitated the fruit's absorption by the market.
Looking ahead, the agrarian unions expect a public intervention to reduce the number of hectares devoted to the production of fruit. They also demand solutions to return to markets such as Russia, which according to UAGA allowed them to sell the fruit to consumers "with a high average purchasing power." Exports currently go mostly to Portugal, France and Italy.
The producers have been trying to tackle this situation by betting on "differentiated products and quality," trying to produce peaches with larger sizes and unique textures. As a result, the Protected Designations of Origin have been playing a more relevant role.
