The agricultural organization Asaja Cordoba has reported that around 20-30% of this season's citrus fruits in the Vega del Guadalquivir have been harvested, a percentage that varies depending on the area and varieties.
The Navelina is the most advanced variety at the moment, and producers are starting to harvest Salustianas.
According to the agrarian organization, the Junta de Andalucía's and Asaja's forecasts, this year there's been an increase in production over last year. "It's not as high as the Junta forecast. There's more fruit, but sizes are smaller than in other years. Thus, we believe that the final production is not going to be as big as the Junta de Andalucía estimated."
In addition, these smaller sizes are making it more complicated than expected to sell the fruit. Moreover, "the market is slower, especially during these weeks due to Christmas, a time when the citrus market tends to come to a standstill."
Nonetheless, in the last session of Cordoba's Chamber of Commerce's Citrus Exchange held on December 17, orange prices for industry rose slightly to around €0.25. The agricultural organization hopes "that these prices will be maintained and help the market to reactivate a little after Christmas." Fundamentally, they hope "there will be no problems, as there were last year, with the entry of oranges from Egypt, which slowed down the marketing campaign in Cordoba quite a lot from January onwards."
For more information:
Asaja Córdoba
www.asajacordoba.es