The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Nísperos Callosa d'en Sarrià (Alicante) has taken the baton of this fruit's campaign, which begins in Granada and Malaga and which has already reached its peak, with lower prospects than in 2016. The president of the Regulatory Board of this PDO, Wenceslao Ferrando, explained that this campaign's development has been largely determined by the hail recorded in early March, "when the loquats had formed, but had not yet ripened," and which caused a lot of fruit to be sorted as second class.
This quality seal, the only one that exists for loquats, expects to cover a third less loquats of extra and first class than in 2016; a year when the total certified volume exceeded six million kilos.
Ferrando pointed out that last year's drought also caused a reduction of the volume, which is why he believes that, ideally, the production should reach 6.5 million kilos, as in 2015.
80 percent of the loquats under the PDO are exported, mainly to European markets, like France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal, and others like the United States, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
The president of the Regulatory Board of Nísperos Callosa d'en Sarrià criticised the "obscurantism" in Brussels's negotiation of the already approved EU-Canada agreement (CETA), in which no quality brands of the size of the loquat one were recognised.
Source: fyh.es
