According to a study prepared by La Unió de Llauradors based on the latest Survey of Surfaces carried out by the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, producers in the Valencian Community stopped growing a total of 2,056 hectares of mandarins and 888 of persimmons throughout 2021.
The study also highlights that the area of commercial varieties of almond trees decreased by 523 hectares, while the area devoted to apricot decreased by 632 hectares and peach or nectarine by 111 hectares.
Meanwhile, the area under lemons increased significantly by 1,200 hectares, avocado grew by 714 hectares, olive groves increased by 264 hectares and vineyards (wine and table vineyards) grew by 166 hectares. The area of orange trees increased by 275 hectares and that dedicated to the cultivation of tiger nuts by 139 hectares.
“It’s worth noting that part of the sharp drop in the mandarin acreage is due to the low prices farmers achieved for the earliest mandarins and clementines in recent seasons, in large part because of the competition from South African citrus, which increased its mandarin exports to the EU by more than 30% in 2021. A recent study by La Unió shows that South Africa increased shipments of small citrus fruits to European markets in September.
“South Africa exports some 64,000 tons throughout its entire export campaign. In the last two campaigns, however, they have exported an average of about 78,000 tons. They used to ship an average of 18,000 tons in September, but in the last two campaigns, that number increased to nearly 25,000 tons.”
Source: freshplaza.com