The Unió de Pagesos agrarian organization stated they expected Catalonia's 2021/22 citrus campaign, which will start in November, would be short and have a total production of about 70,000 tons.
This season, orange production will not exceed 24,000 tons, a much lower volume than the 43,546 produced in 2020 and the 39,313 tons produced on average in the last five years, according to data from the Department of Agriculture.
The union estimates that the region will only produce 20% of the Navelina orange it produced last year, or 40-50% of the medium it normally produces in a season. The Navelina orange is the first orange variety harvested in the region and the most cultivated variety in Catalonia. The union also estimates that the Navelate orange, which will start being harvested around February, will yield an average harvest.
However, the Unió de Pagesos also expects a very significant drop, which will be very similar to that of Navelina orange, in the production of clementines, especially of Clemenules, the most cultivated variety in Catalonia. Therefore, it is very likely that the clementine harvest will not exceed 50,000 tons in this new season.
Even though it's too early to assess the initial prices at origin, it seems that they are below the starting price of the previous campaign, the Unió de Pagesos stated. In fact, according to the Valencia citrus market, the prices of Navelina oranges at origin in week 41 of 2021 (October 11) ranged between € 0.165 and 0.235/kg, i.e. below the € 0.212 and 0.282/kg achieved in the same week of 2020.
The union also warned about the advance of the new South African cotonet plague in Catalonia in recent weeks. Citrus producers are worried about this as, so far, there is no authorized effective phytosanitary treatment against it. The plague was detected for the first time within the European Union in Valencia, in 2009, and in Catalonia, in 2017, in the municipality of Tortosa.
The Unió de Pagesos asked the Climate Action Department for much more diligence in detecting and controlling the outbreaks and in providing producers with the necessary means to fight them.
Source: agrodigital.com