The union Unió de Pagesos (UP) has warned that the first hazelnut prices of the new campaign (which started on 1 September) in the Reus Market are below those of Italian hazelnuts.
According to the agricultural union, domestic hazelnuts have stood at 1.40 Euro, while the Italian have reached 1.45 Euro, and warned that these prices in Catalonia are the lowest since 2014.
When looking at weighted average prices, the producers believe that Catalan hazelnuts stand 20% below the Italian and 17% below the Turkish.
To this we must also add the increase in production costs in recent years and the loss of agricultural aid in the sector. Direct aid has dropped by 20 to 30%, while agro-environmental aid has fallen by between 25 and 40%.
In total, professional hazelnut producers have lost 67% of the aid and non-professionals 60%.
According to UP, these low prices could lead to economic unfeasibility, since any price below 2.5 Euro entails higher losses than profits.
For these reasons, the agrarian union has asked the Department of Agriculture of the Government of Catalonia for the strict enforcement of the reference prices for hazelnuts.
The Unió de Pagesos also reports that they will participate in the annual meeting on the hazelnut market between the European Union and Turkey, to be held in the Turkish city of Ordu on Friday 22 September, and in that context, they will assess the situation.
Source: EFE
