In the absence of official figures, everything indicates that the area planted with early garlic or Spring garlic in Casilla-La Mancha has decreased by 20% in this campaign. According to Julio Bacete, the president of the National Garlic Board and of the Coopaman cooperative (a second-degree cooperative from Cuenca), the decrease in the area planted in other autonomies and at the national level would be higher.
In fact, estimates are that the average decrease in the area planted with early garlic in Spain ranges between 20 and 30% and between 40 and 50% in Andalusia.
This decrease in the area sown with Spring garlic is due to the considerable increase in production costs and the stagnant prices, which are similar to the prices achieved last year and are jeopardizing the profitability of farms.
"We don't want to raise the prices of garlic on a whim, we want it to increase because there's been a strong increase in the costs of inputs. Producing a hectare of garlic now ranges between 12,000 and 15,000 euro, depending on the site and the price of rent. There are farms in which the expenses exceed the income."
In addition, Bacete said, there is uncertainty due to the drought. Farmers have to start spending money irrigating their fields because it hasn't rained anywhere, so there's no other option. To make things worse, there is some apathy in consumption.
Julio Bacete isn't surprised that farmers have chosen to sow fewer hectares of early garlic. In fact, he said, the same thing will probably happen with the sowing of purple garlic, which will begin approximately at the beginning of December.
Source: lasnoticiasdecuenca.es