ASAJA and COAG have recalled that, with last week's publication of the new withdrawal prices, which will be available to the sector as of 1 June, there is no excuse to continue selling at a price below the production costs; much lower than the cost of shipping the products for free distribution or even of destroying them. It does not make sense for a grower to be paid 15 or 20 cents/kg for a melon, when they will be able to receive 48 cents (31 cents at the moment) for withdrawing it and 36 cents for other uses.
In recent weeks, we have been seeing a sharp fall in prices at origin, which has mainly affected the seasonal products, such as melons and watermelons, which are being sold for prices below 20 cents. "If the market is currently saturated by productions from other origins and there is no demand for our products, the most logical step is not to sell, as that will only result in losses to the growers. That is why we believe that Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organizations should urgently enforce crisis management measures to ensure the withdrawal of the products, so that they can be used for charities, for biodegradation or for animal feed, but we cannot continue selling at a lower price than the withdrawal price," pointed out both Agrarian Organizations.
But they also warn that withdrawals have to be made in a timely manner and when it is really necessary. "If the supply is excessive, we will have to adopt measures to keep it in balance with the demand, resorting to the mechanisms foreseen in European regulations for these exceptional circumstances."
ASAJA and COAG also highlighted that Spain has an annual production of more than 3,000 million kilos, so withdrawing 4 million would affect barely 0.1% of the country's production. It is the equivalent of withdrawing the production of about 36 hectares. Besides, there are other mechanisms for the management of these crises, such as the non-harvesting or harvesting in green, and which producers are currently not resorting to.
According to the latest report of the Fega corresponding to 2015, aid to market withdrawals as a prevention measure and crisis management tool in the total of Andalusian OPFH's represents only 3.7% of the total investments.