The agrarian organization Asaja Córdoba has reported that the orange harvest is currently between 15 and 20% complete. The production is expected to be similar to the previous one for the early varieties and around 10% lower for the late varieties in a framework where the national orange production is expected to fall by 1%.
As for the fruit itself, "the quality is good, but generally small in size" due to the weather conditions throughout the year. The market consequently demands large sizes, as there are few available. The hope is that the recent rains can serve to increase the size of late varieties such as the Lane Late and Valencia Late, which will start to be harvested approximately in February.
Prices are currently lower than at the beginning of the campaign, with the first class Navelina variety sold for between € 0.21-0.23 / kg and the Salustiana for between € 0.21-0.25 / kg.
Also, the sector has shown its concern about the central government's plan to raise the VAT on orange juice from 10 to 21%.
Asaja warns of "the dire consequences that this would have for the citrus sector as a whole," since the increase in the price of orange juice at the point of sale would discourage consumption, and the volumes of fruit that would stop going to the processing industry would end up straining the marketing channels of the fresh market, which could contribute to pushing prices at origin down.”