The harvest has not yet been completed because it is more convenient to farmers to leave the fruits on the trees.
"Exports have collapsed especially to Europe that is our main market, due to excessive supply and the reduced purchasing power of consumers for the economic crisis - the director of PGI Citricos Valencianos told us -. In addition, we register a record high pressure on prices, which this year will not reach half the average level of last year”.
As usual since years, large retail chains are blamed for this situation, as they discharge the consequences of the economic downturn they are also experiencing on producers. 
Concern is high throughout the Spanish citrus sector, which this season has in fact already organized numerous acts of protest in front of some German retail chains such as Aldi and Lidl by throwing to the ground tons of produce (see past news). “It is ten years that the sector is suffering these abuses, and season after season the number of farmers leaving the business increases. A solution can only come from the political world, which should govern relations between producers and retailers”, Juan highlights.
At production level the trend to survive is to renew the cultivations by replacing oranges with tangerines (which are more in demand by consumers), while in commercial terms the impact of the economic crisis is somehow less heavy in some markets, such as in Russia where however competition from other exporting countries is very strong, such as Turkey and Morocco.
Although the search for new markets continues to represent a strategy to increase exports, the director of the consortium PGI Citricos Valencianos cannot hide his pessimistic view of the current marketing year and of the future of the industry.

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