The agrarian organization, UPA, has asked the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment and its agency AICA to investigate the open price sales in the stonefruit market; that is, those in which buyers acquire the product from growers without contracts or set prices.
According to the general secretary of UPA, Lorenzo Ramos, this is one of the irregularities currently detected while in the peak of the campaign, although it is not the only one, since the organization has noticed that fruits failing to meet the standards demanded by buyers, and for which producers receive no payments, are ending up at points of sale, including large retailers, supermarkets and fruit and vegetable stores, according to Ramos.
In this context, the general secretary has asked for controls, both of the stonefruit marketed in Spain and the one exported, with the idea of giving transparency to a market in which "there is a lot of speculation, which is behind the abnormally low prices at origin, even though demand is strong inside and outside the country and there is no oversupply.
As an example, he reported that some stores are currently selling peaches for almost 3 Euro, but the producer is receiving only 0.30 Euro.
In the case of plums in Extremadura, the campaign is marked by a much smaller production compared to last year, but producers in this region are offered prices ranging between 35 and 45 cents, while those same fruits "are sold at very good prices after being exported to Europe, Canada, Brazil or the US."
The latest attack in France on produce from Spain has been used to bring prices at origin down, he denounced.
In general terms, "there is no reason for stonefruit prices to fall to the level they have fallen," he stated, because the production is normal, "perhaps only slightly higher in some areas, and there is plenty of demand, as the number of orders has skyrocketed with the heat wave."
