Spain has created the Avocado and Mango Inter-branch Organization

The Avocado and Mango Inter-branch Organization, which is made up of producer and marketing associations of both products, was constituted to encourage national consumption, promote research and innovation, improve knowledge of production and the market, and promote supply regulation measures.

Spain has great potential in both productions. "Consumers need to know that Spain produces avocado and mango. That the local product's quality is extraordinary and that these proximity productions allow farmers to generate value and continue developing their activity in the rural area," stated the president of the organization, Enrique Colilles.

Spain currently produces around 106,000 tons of avocado and almost 40,000 tons of mango, mainly in Andalusia and more specifically in the area of the tropical coast of Granada and the Axarquia of Malaga, where 12,000 families in the rural area live from these crops. In recent years, the avocado sector has also expanded significantly in the provinces of Cadiz and Huelva.

According to the latest data available from the Junta de Andalucía, corresponding to 2022, Granada has 2,820 hectares devoted to avocado, Málaga 7,830 hectares, Cádiz 1,870 hectares, and Huelva 1,800 hectares. Avocado cultivation is also spreading in the Valencian Community, where there already are approximately 3,100 hectares cultivated. The Canary Islands already have a consolidated, good-quality production, which is mostly consumed locally

These crops have an important social component due to the volume of direct labor in the field they generate. In addition, the avocado and mango marketing companies, which are very present in international and professionalized markets, generate a demand for stable and quality employment, thus managing to establish a non-agricultural population in the rural area, and attracting personnel from other areas.

"The Spanish avocado and mango sector has great challenges, such as the worldwide increase in production, competition from third countries, or the worrying falsehood about the excessive water consumption of avocado and to a lesser extent of mango. However, they also present opportunities because they are healthy, sustainable, high-quality products that are highly appreciated by the market," Colilles added.

The new Inter-branch Organization represents the entire avocado and mango value chain in an integrated way. In the production sector, it integrates Asaja, COAG, UPA, Agro-Food Cooperatives of Spain, Spanish Tropical Association (AET), and FEPEX-ASOCIAFRUIT organizations, and in processing and marketing, it brings together the Association of Avocado and Mango Marketing Companies (AECAM), Agro-Food Cooperatives of Spain, and FEPEX-ASOCIAFRUIT.

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