The next campaign of the orange was not presented as the best in the first approximations of the summer. Farmers’ associations estimate that there will be a significant drop in production and a rise in prices at source, which will be “good and stable” if demand is normal.
In this not uncomplicated scenario, to which is added the reluctance to consume that agricultural groups have denounced on other occasions, this week it was known that the company Cítrics de Nules is withdrawing from the game. The cooperative, the last remaining in the town of Castellón, has announced this week an Employment Regulation File (ERE) that will affect more than a thousand workers.
As explained by the secretary of the agri-food sector of FICA-UGT in Castellón, Ramon Ángel Serra, the cooperative “has not been able to adapt to tastes or have cutting-edge technology to reduce production costs. Especially in a scenario in which that you have investment funds that put a lot of money into important brands and the cooperatives have not sought or sought solutions to deal with these monsters,” Serra clarified.
The company has alleged financing problems, but has not provided more information, the agencies explain. This newspaper has unsuccessfully tried to contact the Nules City Council, a town that will now see the last of its cooperatives disappear, which had about 400 members. For Ava-Asaja, the closure is a pity because this type of marketing entity has “a very important social component and its closure will mean the loss of many direct and indirect jobs.”
For his part, the general secretary of La Unió Llauradora i Ramadera, Carles Peris, assures that the ills of Cítrics de Nules come from those previous campaigns that farmers have had to endure selling at “continuously low prices”. He also attributes it to the fact that the company has focused on the production of “clemenules” (a variety of tangerines), which in his opinion has caused it to become destabilized after continuous years of “ruinous prices” and that the cooperative “has not been able to bear the debts it owes”.
However, it does not seem that the story is going to change for the sector. At the beginning of the month, both Ava-Asaja and La Unió made their estimates for the orange campaign and both agreed that there will be a drop in production.
Ava-Asaja also predicted a rise in the prices at origin in the first purchase and sale contracts for oranges and mandarins in the Valencian Community, mainly due to the decrease in supply that is expected in the citrus industry of the Mediterranean basin due to climatic adversities. .
The scourges of citrus growing have been the high temperatures in March and April (coinciding with the flowering and fruit set phases), the “unusual cold” in May and the persistent rainfall throughout May and June. The hailstorms also caused damage of varying degrees to the fruits, recalls the Association, which notes a marked drop in harvests, especially satsuma mandarins, hybrids and all kinds of oranges.
In recent weeks there are many varieties that are still on the tree and the Citrus Price Table only registers operations in the Navel orange variety. Likewise, the first prices of the season published by the Lonja de Cítricos de Valencia presented a price range between 0.206 euros per kilo for “navelina” to almost 0.67 euros per kilo for “oronules”.
