"Globalization is a fact; what happens in a given area of the world ends up having an impact on you. This is what happens with potatoes. This year, France has had an excellent campaign and in the rest of the Spanish territory there has also been a great harvest, so prices are very low," explains Juan Carlos García, one of the biggest professional potato producers in the Bergantiños region.
García adds that these low prices have also resulted from the "acceptable results and good prices of previous years, which encouraged many to plant potatoes." He says that Coristanco potatoes are currently sold for 40-50 cents, while last year they reached 60-70 cents. In Burgos, for example, the excellent French campaign has caused prices to sink down to 3 cents per kilo.
In A Limia, the main potato producing region in Galicia, the situation is similar. "There is no demand. We are keeping the potatoes in storage; the warehouses are full," says José Ramón González, head for agricultural production at Unións Agrarias and producer in the area of A Limia.
González criticises the unfair competition from France. "They try to sell late potatoes stored in chambers as early potatoes, and this oversupply prevents us from getting our potatoes on the market," says González, who complains that the situation has already been reported repeatedly, but governments are doing nothing.
Source: laopinioncoruna.es
