It is the sixth ship departing this year from the port of Castellón to the North American market, "which is a very interesting market, given the high purchasing power of consumers and the fact that it helps in diversifying the supply, resulting in an improvement in the fruit's prices," said the Government delegate of the Region of Valencia, Juan Carlos Moragues, in a visit to the port of Castellón.
The delegate assured that the volume exported to this destination has been declining in recent years due to competition from Morocco and the Southern Cone countries, but citrus growers "have been able to open new markets, such as China, Korea or Australia, which have a strong and growing demand."
According to official statistics, exports to Korea have gone from 2,128 tonnes in the 2014-2015 campaign to 2,583 tonnes in the 2016-2017 campaign.
In China, Spanish exports have gone from 3,136 tonnes in the 2014-2015 campaign to 19,580 tonnes in the 2016-2017 season, which is a six-fold increase.
The delegate explained that the forecasts for this year "are even better" and that the fruit this campaign "is especially valuable as a result of the fall in production."
According to the estimates, the citrus harvest in the 2017-2018 season is expected to reach 3,143,984 tonnes, 611,800 of which correspond to the province of Castellón. This entails a 23.6% reduction compared to the previous season, with a 24% fall recorded by mandarins and 21.8% by oranges.
The delegate stated that until 30 November, a total of 9,575 tonnes of citrus have been shipped from the port of Castellón, and the forecast if for "the volume of oranges shipped to be similar to last season's, when 12,415 tonnes were exported in 6 ships."
Moragues has highlighted that 80% of the oranges that are shipped to the United States depart from the port of Castellón.
Source: EFE
