Just a few days before the campaign comes to an end, citrus growers from the province of Huelva are satisfied with the results achieved and consider it "a good one." The total volume has reached 570,000 tonnes and exceeded the initial forecast of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development by 8% (it had predicted the volume to reach 523,000 tonnes).
The president of the Association of Citrus Producers of the province of Huelva, Lorenzo Reyes, stated that the campaign is as good as finished and that "it has been good overall. There is still some fruit in some farms, but that volume is no longer significant."
50 percent of the total volume harvested corresponds to oranges and the other 50 to mandarins, with the latter reaching a total of 250,000 tonnes, harvested by local labourers and others contracted at origin in Morocco.
At the same time, according to Lorenzo Reyes, "the prices have been quite reasonable, ranging between 0.35 and 0.42 Euro per kilo, but then they have fallen and stood at 0.26 Euro. This was due to the rains of the past spring, but also to the entry of oranges from other producing areas."
As regards exports, Reyes said that "these have been carried out at a good pace," with shipments going to the main consumer countries, such as Germany, France and the UK. Their performance is crucial for the campaign, since most of Huelva's mandarins are exported, with just 35% of the total remaining in Spain.
However, it is worth recalling that the season did not have the best start, especially in the case of mandarins, since the extra-early varieties "caused problems, because the fruit did not reach the desired size for a well-paying market." In fact, the president of the association has acknowledged that "some of the operations carried out were not satisfactory."
As for the orange campaign, he pointed out that, although it rained a lot during the spring, in the months of January and February, "when Spain was covered in snow, Huelva was a privileged area," so the development of the season has eventually been satisfactory.
For all these reasons, Huelva continues to be the province with the largest mandarin production in Andalusia, accounting for 57 percent of the region's total volume. It is also the second largest producer of sweet oranges, with 21 percent of the total, only behind Seville. Together, these two provinces account for 65 percent of Andalusia's citrus production, which, in turn, accounts for 28.99 percent of the total nationwide.
In Spain (7.1 million tonnes), only the Region of Valencia has a greater production. Valencia’s production amounts to 3.9 million tonnes. In the case of mandarins, 14.52 percent of the Spanish production (2.4 million tonnes) is Andalusian, and Huelva and Seville account for 71.89 percent of the total.
Source: Europa Press
