The European Commission (EC) has accepted the Spanish Government's request to increase the quota for the withdrawal of stonefruit by another 19,550 tonnes, due to the crisis that the sector is suffering.
This was pointed out in a statement by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Fisheries and Environment (Mapama), which reported that this measure was presented at a technical meeting held in Brussels and will be formally approved "in the next few days."
According to the estimations of the department led by Isabel García Tejerina, those 19,550 tonnes of peaches and nectarines will be added to the already existing quotas and to the volumes already withdrawn, reaching a total of over 40,000 tonnes.
The objective of this initiative is to withdraw the surplus production, mainly a result of the Russian veto, in order to get prices to recover.
The expansion of the quota will entail withdrawing 19,550 tonnes of peaches and nectarines from the market, which will be used for the production of juice or to be distributed by food banks.
Of the other 21,000 tonnes already withdrawn during this campaign, 18,000 were intended to be processed into juice and the remaining 3,000 were delivered to food banks for fresh consumption, according to these same sources.
"The stonefruit sector has been suffering a structural imbalance due to excess supply every summer since 2014, even before the closing of the Russian market," recalled sources from the Mapama, who stressed that the situation has aggravated in 2017.
The good production data recorded in all the producing regions this campaign have in some cases resulted in difficulties in marketing these fruits.
Due precisely to the "structural" nature of the sector's problems, the Ministry hoped to set up a working group in the autumn to study "medium- and long-term solutions" aimed at restoring the balance between supply and demand.
Source: efeagro.com
