Exporters and cooperative organizations have warned that drought is taking a toll on the planting this season, and as a result, the harvest volume expected for early 2017 will be reduced. Fecoam has estimated this drop at 40 percent.
Santiago Martínez, president of Fecoam, which brings together 86 cooperatives and 22,000 members, said that final data on the losses in sales to foreign markets will be available between February and March.
Meanwhile, the president of Proexport, Juan Marín, has stressed that the lack of the necessary irrigation resources since the summer has caused a decline in the production volume and, above all, in the quality of the fruit, which fails to meet the minimum requirements of international chains.
Therefore, he explained that the production is moving to neighbouring provinces, where the weather is not as benign, but where they have the necessary water resources, although he lamented how the workforce is affected by this change, making it necessary for labourers to move or for new ones to be hired at origin.
For his part, Francisco López, president of Fecamur, which has 30 cooperatives and 5,000 members, defended the need to promote the arrival of water from other river basins, and to minimise the use of desalination plants, because of their high cost, reminding us also that Murcian agriculture creates thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Source: EFE