There are high expectations for the 2024/25 orange season in Cordoba, with positive initial prospects in terms of production, as greater volumes are expected compared to last year.
"The Regional Government of Andalusia published the production estimates last month, with data collected in August. For citrus fruits in particular, it is difficult to calculate the exact production, because the percentage of growers integrated in the producers' organization is not that high. In the case of oranges, it doesn't even reach 22% in the province of Cordoba," says Eduardo Eraso, from Asaja Cordoba. "In fact, we believe that the figures published are a little high and, according to our forecast, Cordoba's citrus production in general should grow by around 30-35%, rather than the 53.4% announced by the Regional Government."
"Nonetheless, there is another reason to be optimistic this season, apart from the increase in the production, and that's the price of orange juice. We have been reporting for some time that the price of juice is at record highs due to the problems with the orange production and we hope that these high prices will also give a push to the price levels in the fresh market."
"At the same time, we are seeing that there could be issues with labor this season. The lack of workers for the harvesting and handling has not had a severe impact, because there have been smaller harvests of both citrus fruits and olives, whose seasons normally overlap; but this year, in which volumes will increase, we are expecting growers to be left desperately looking for workers for their crops."
"Faced with this situation, we have already asked for the authorization of quotas to be able to contract harvest workers from other countries at source. I remember how 17-18 years ago, many people came from Romania for the harvesting season because of the shortage of labor. This year, we won't know the nationalities of the workers who can be recruited until the necessary administrative decisions are made, but they will all be welcome, because everything points to labor shortages becoming a big problem this season for citrus growers in Cordoba and the Vega del Guadalquivir in general."
"If the law of the chain prevents contracts from being signed with below-cost prices, we should know what those are"
Labor is a necessary and increasingly scarce resource. At the same time, it is one of the highest expenses in citrus growing. In fact, according to a report recently published by Ava-Asaja, the average cost of a kilo of oranges today amounts to 0.27 €/kg.
"Our colleagues in the Valencian Community have updated a figure that had not been changed since 2020. We are aware that making this calculation isn't easy; smallholdings in Valencia, for example, are not comparable to some of the large farms Andalusia has, and I am sure the figure varies for each variety, depending on their productivity, etc. But the data presented by our colleagues from Ava is a very good representation of the reality."
"For years, we have been asking the Andalusian Regional Government and also the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture for an updated estimation of the production costs in citrus, because the law of the chain prevents contracts from being signed with below-cost prices, so we should know what those prices are. Even a simple price range would suffice, so that we at least have something to go by."
"Some oranges are already being harvested, but for the time being, we don't have representative price data. We'll have to wait until late October/early November for operations to start and data to be collected in the Lonja de Cítricos. What we can say is that there is already a lot of movement and plenty of interest in Andalusian oranges and we are very hopeful that the price of juice will push prices to optimal levels."
For more information:
Asaja Cordoba
Tel.: +34 957 48 06 00
[email protected]
www.asajacordoba.es