Last week, the third Orange Festival of the Algarve took place in Silves. In this stronghold of the Portuguese citrus industry, 90 percent of all domestic citrus is produced each year. During a speech, Secretary of State Freitas looked back on an overall positive development in the
production of tropical fruits. He recalled that the industry was hit by a severe crisis more than ten years ago. As a result, the acreage in the Algarve declined from 18,000 hectares in 2003 to 12,000 hectares in 2009. This was reported by the magazine Algarve für Entdecker.
The Secretary also said that there had been a wave of new investment in recent years. Since then, citrus fruits have been grown in the Algarve again on an acreage of 16,000 hectares. Despite the still smaller acreage, however, the production volume increased from 240,000 tons in 2003 to 340,000 tons last year through increased efficiency. According to Secretary of State Freitas, the entire country exported citrus fruits worth 130 million euros. That's ten percent of the value of all fruit exported from Portugal.
"Germany is a complicated market"
Despite the positive overall development, according to Freitas, Portugal's citrus fruits are not really progressing in the German market. "Germany is a complicated and competitive market," said the Secretary. "Spain and Turkey in particular are big competitors for citrus fruits from Portugal." With mutual support, however, they will try to optimize production, solve production-related problems and master challenges. The Secretary made it clear: "Every market is important to us, including that of Germany."