Spain: Malaga's subtropical crops continue to expand

The commitment to exports continues to yield good results to Malaga's subtropical sector, even though the province's avocado production remains more or less stable (around 40,000 tonnes per campaign) and that of mangoes has been almost identical for two years (about 30,000 tonnes). The secret is in the importing activities of the province's agro-food companies, which allow them to continue supplying the European markets. And Europe does not stop demanding avocados. The consumption of this fruit has grown in the European Union by about 150% in the last decade, almost equalling the rise in the Spanish production each campaign. Europe also demands mangoes all year round and Malaga is the only producing area in the EU.

It is not a matter of bringing fruit produced overseas and claim it to be Spanish, but of re-exporting them to Europe indicating their origin. However, the National Association of Producers of Subtropical Fruits is working on the creation of a quality label to differentiate the avocados and mangoes from Malaga and Granada. "Here the crops are practically organic; they hardly require any phytosanitary treatments and there are many products which are not authorised here which are allowed in other countries," points out its president, José Linares.

For companies like Frutas Montosa, the leading firm in the tropical fruit sector, with more than 30 years of experience, the import business can account for 70% of the total revenue. The company plans to close 2017 with 118 million Euro in turnover, compared to 102 last year. In total, it will market 26.5 million kilos of avocados, compared to 24.1 million in 2016; 3.2 million kilos of guacamole (2.7 in 2016), four million kilos of mangoes, one more than in the previous year, and one million kilos of mango sauce (100,000 kilos in 2016). Much of the growth is due to the import and re-export business.

The agrarian transformation society, Trops, which invoiced 80 million Euro in the previous campaign, expects to make around 100 million this year. Frutas Reyes Gutiérrez does not rule out reaching 65 million (40 from Reyes Gutiérrez España, 10 from Avomix, the company of the group specialised in processing and the fresh cut range, and 15 from Reyes Gutiérrez France). The same applies for Natural Tropic, which expects to reach 35 million this year, compared to 30 million in 2016. The story is the same for Frutas Sigfrido, which will increase its turnover from 8.4 million Euro to about 11 million at the end of this year, and with Trópico Spain, which will close the year with 30 million in sales, as revealed by its managers at Fruit Attraction, where they had the chance to have a meeting with their suppliers.

Source: diariosur.es