Producers have had difficulties maintaining their activity in a citrus campaign with 17.7% less production (-22.8% in the case of oranges). However, they aren't the only ones going through a rough patch as marketers have experienced some complex months to comply with their commercial obligations and to provide the usual service to their customers, trying to preserve a balance in prices in the context of rising costs.
“We come from the 2021/2022 campaign, in which there was a lot of production,” stated Victor Fuster of Germans Fuster. “Last season, the market did not work and prices were very poor for producers. This year, there's a decline in the harvest but there's demand for our product.”
There's been a shortage in the 2022/2023 campaign. In this scenario “we try to get ahead and plan purchases; sometimes, as on this occasion, you have to go out early and be willing to pay good prices to get fruit, because farmers have had many shops looking for oranges at the same time. The market in general noticed that there was a lack of supply but it's been very difficult for businesses to move the price and the increase in costs to markets and supermarkets.”
Germans Fuster, which was founded by Victor's grandfather, is a family-owned citrus marketing company located in Daimús, Valencia. “80% of what we market are oranges, especially Navelinas, Lane Late, and Valencia Late. The remaining are clementines and hybrid mandarins. We mainly work with farmers from the Valencian Community with whom we have collaborated for years; and, even though we specifically work in areas of Andalusia or Murcia, 90% of our purchases are focused on Valencian citrus."
“In fact, we are linked to the Cítricos Valencianos PGI, of which I am vice president. Recently we have taken another step and launched the Naranja Valenciana brand. It was an idea of the PGI and the Generalitat to value the Valencian origin of our oranges because explaining a PGI can sometimes be difficult. We saw that it might be clearer to establish a geographical brand in which all businesses in the Valencian Community could participate, something that consumers could identify themselves with and that reinforced their feeling of belonging."
“We were voted as the best trade in Spain by the farmers themselves”
Germans Fuster's was recently awarded Naranjasyfrutas.com's Best Citrus Trade Award for the 2022-2023 season. "It's a very special prize because it was voted by the farmers. They valued 4 points: price, which is very important, and three other parameters that sometimes go unnoticed: that the beginning and end of the harvest is carried out, that the fruit that is collected is the fruit that was agreed was going to be collected, and that the payment is made in the agreed period," Victor stated.
“Every year we manage to generate loyalty among farmers so we can continue working with them. They are satisfied with the way we work, and we are very happy that this initiative of orangesyfrutas.com reflects the effort we make to try to comply with our farmers,” he added.
“This campaign we have already started to visit the producers in their fields in the Valencian Community. It is still early to make assessments, but in the trees you already begin to observe the fruit there is, the calibers they have, and if they are having any problems. We hope there's more fruit than last year. I think it will be a normal production.”
For more information:
Germans Fuster
Ctra. Nou Accés platja, 9
46710 Daimús, València (España)
Tlf. +34 962 802 259
www.germansfuster.com