The landscape in Vega del Guadalquivir, Spain, has experienced a remarkable change in recent decades thanks to the introduction of citrus, especially oranges. The quality of the soil, ideal climate, profitability of the crops, modernisation of the irrigation systems and the excellent quality of the oranges motivated growers 38 years ago to start replacing the traditional cotton and beetroot plantations with orange trees.
This transformation turned the area of Valle del Guadalquivir into one of Andalusia's largest citrus producers, with 33,556 hectares, 15,000 of which are in Palma del Rio, which only had 1,500 hectares in the 1970's. Back then, the Cadenera, Salustiana and Old Navelina were the most prominent varieties, but over the years there has been a great change with the introduction of clementines and new Navelina varieties, such as the Navel Foyo or the Australian. Over the past ten years, the range has increased even more with new types of late oranges, such as white or juicing oranges, totalling 12 different varieties in production, which helps extend the campaign, one of the goals set by the sector to consolidate sales and employment.
These data were presented during a technical workshop that took place in Palma del Rio as part of an initiative called "The month of oranges", which seeks to promote the consumption of this product. In this sense, the technician Augusto Carmona explained that he is currently working in a test orchard with more than 30 varieties of Spanish, Brazilian and Argentinian oranges to be able to introduce them in the market and further extend the campaign, which currently lasts from October to June. The data also confirm that the citrus sector has become a pillar of the local economy, especially in Palma del Rio, which in addition to producing around 66,000 tonnes of oranges per year, concentrates an important number of processing and trading firms.
According to the manager of the Group for the Rural Development of Middle Guadalquivir, Jesús Orcaray, 40% of the active population works in the citrus sector during the campaign and the annual turnover is of around 135 million Euro.
Source: Eldiadecordoba
