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Miguel Sanz, of Naranjas Miguelito:

"On December 27, in the middle of the Spanish season, there were still Valencian brands selling oranges from South Africa"

The rains in Seville, Spain, have brought the orange harvest to a temporary halt in the province, where the second-season varieties are gradually arriving. "Nonetheless, there are still quite a few Navelinas left in the fields," says Miguel Sanz, of Naranjas Miguelito.

"The season started off quite well with the Navelina, and the first sales were made at very good prices. In my case, the highest price I've ever got for my oranges in all the years I've been in this business," he says. "But from mid-November onwards, everything started to come to a standstill and the price started to drop."

"We were receiving information that juice was being sold for a nice price of around 22 cents per kilo, but fresh fruit prices were not much higher, and during this period, many buyers were asking to renegotiate the rates at which they had bought the fruit just a few months earlier."

"In my opinion, several factors have been at play this year," says Miguel. "The first is that there has remarkably been more interference than in other years from our own traders, who have bought a lot of South African oranges; in fact, on December 27, in the middle of the Spanish season, I went to a supermarket in Seville and saw a Spanish brand - specifically Valencian - selling oranges from South Africa at a price of 2.5 €/kg."

"This huge gap between prices at source and those of the final product is another of the problems that marketers themselves are causing. Sales aren't going smoothly and the fruit is not being sold at the expected rate," says Miguel.

"Besides, this year, average Navelina sizes have been smaller due to a lack of irrigation, and many growers have been selling their fruit at low prices, bringing market prices down."

"For me, what's been most striking is that in December we were already receiving offers for the Lane Late, an orange from mid-February, at apparently good prices," he says.

"As funds have been entering the sector, the price peaks that were reached at specific moments in the season have ceased to be recorded"
"What we've been seeing since the first week of the year has been the entry of fruit from Egypt via Valencia," says Miguel. "In fact, we've heard that a new shipment of oranges arrived in Valencian ports last week, and many people in the sector are very disappointed with the behavior of many big Valencian citrus brands. Because those who are importing oranges against which we are unable to compete, instead of investing in Spanish products, are colleagues from our own country," he says. "I don't understand why Valencian growers are not there in the port protesting against this competition, doing what, for example, French growers would have done."

"In this regard, it must also be said that these large groups specializing in citrus, whose names we all know, are the ones who traditionally set the fruit's purchase price, and they have taken to buying cheaply," says Miguel. "A very high percentage of these groups are owned by investment funds and, as these funds have been entering the sector, the price peaks that used to be reached at specific moments in the season have ceased to be recorded, unless there is a cataclysm of some kind," he says.

"This year, in which some said that Egypt might sell up to 35% less fruit in Europe and that Morocco would again have a commercial connection with the U.S., we should be talking about a very good season in terms of prices. Instead, we are just surviving," says Miguel.

"This follows two very bad years: one in which we had a very limited production, and the other, in which neither the harvest nor prices were good. Given this situation, if the good years are not excellent and campaigns don't turn out as we hoped, we won't be able to cope for much longer," says Miguel Sanz.

For more information:
Naranjas Miguelito
Calle Vicente Aleixandre, 6
41960 - Gines, Seville. Spain
Tel.:+34 675 286 993
www.naranjasmiguelito.com