The agricultural organization COAG in Almería warns of an important drop in prices of products like melon and watermelon. They point to the entrance of products of third party countries, especially Senegal, and to commercial strategies, that might have contributed to the sinking of prices.
COAG says that "aspects like the transports strike are not affecting the horticultural sector in Almería", according to the organization after contacting different companies and transport wholesale federations they were of the opinion that they "could not support such a strike".
In a note, the organization analyzed the causes of this drop in prices, pointing out that, the present weather conditions in Europe "should improve the consumption of melon and watermleon", underlining that "it's important that farmers don't sell in desperation, reducing the prices of their products, since this is the one thing that can damage the other farmers".
So, they attribute the prices conditioning "like every year" to the entrance of melon and watermelon coming from Senegal and third-party countries that "after spending weeks stored, arrive to consumers in some bad conditions and sold as local products".
As explained by COAG, "despite imports from Senegal and other countries being in line with previous years, this is no excuse to stop pressuring imports from third-party countries". Even so, COAG doesn't put aside that the low prices situation "is also a strategy from the ones buying watermelon in the free market to try and sink quotes".
With this, they believe that buyers "scare" farmers by "telling them that the price they offer is way higher than the one they are going to get from merchants, so producers, not wanting to lose the whole investment, give up to a situation that is causing prices to sink".
Varieties
Other of the problems found in the market is about the varieties of products harvested. "We realized the need to study the systems in deep, we can't keep on with the blind harvesting", said the organization, as they believe that "some kind of organization and assistance is needed when the time comes to decide which variety to harvest and, for example, if we know that black watermelon is not getting out in the market, there's no sense in cultivating it more and more, as with its sale we will not even cover production costs".
COAG Almería had again a call-up to consumers, as they are the ones that can demand to supermarkets a clear tag on products and demand for local products, the ones "offering way more quality warranties than the ones coming from third-party countries". "It's essential that citizens support this, since our neighbors are the ones going to the supermarket to buy and in this province, if farming doesn't work it will paralyze almost every other sector", they ended.
Source: Ideal
COAG says that "aspects like the transports strike are not affecting the horticultural sector in Almería", according to the organization after contacting different companies and transport wholesale federations they were of the opinion that they "could not support such a strike".
In a note, the organization analyzed the causes of this drop in prices, pointing out that, the present weather conditions in Europe "should improve the consumption of melon and watermleon", underlining that "it's important that farmers don't sell in desperation, reducing the prices of their products, since this is the one thing that can damage the other farmers".
So, they attribute the prices conditioning "like every year" to the entrance of melon and watermelon coming from Senegal and third-party countries that "after spending weeks stored, arrive to consumers in some bad conditions and sold as local products".
As explained by COAG, "despite imports from Senegal and other countries being in line with previous years, this is no excuse to stop pressuring imports from third-party countries". Even so, COAG doesn't put aside that the low prices situation "is also a strategy from the ones buying watermelon in the free market to try and sink quotes".
With this, they believe that buyers "scare" farmers by "telling them that the price they offer is way higher than the one they are going to get from merchants, so producers, not wanting to lose the whole investment, give up to a situation that is causing prices to sink".
Varieties
Other of the problems found in the market is about the varieties of products harvested. "We realized the need to study the systems in deep, we can't keep on with the blind harvesting", said the organization, as they believe that "some kind of organization and assistance is needed when the time comes to decide which variety to harvest and, for example, if we know that black watermelon is not getting out in the market, there's no sense in cultivating it more and more, as with its sale we will not even cover production costs".
COAG Almería had again a call-up to consumers, as they are the ones that can demand to supermarkets a clear tag on products and demand for local products, the ones "offering way more quality warranties than the ones coming from third-party countries". "It's essential that citizens support this, since our neighbors are the ones going to the supermarket to buy and in this province, if farming doesn't work it will paralyze almost every other sector", they ended.
Source: Ideal