The development of horticultural exports from Valencia and Spain shows a completely opposite trend to that of the province of Alicante. Since early this year, according to data supplied by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the ICEX corresponding to the period from January to September, the export of fresh fruit and vegetables registered a strong rebound in the autonomous region and in the country of 13% and 14% in value, respectively; almost at the same level of the drop recorded in Alicante. The national union FEPEX and Alicante's Fexphal, which is headed by the CEO of Bonnysa de Mutxamel, Jorge Brotons, blame this mainly on the impact of the terrible drought that the province has been suffering.
In the first nine months of the year, food companies in the province have exported fresh fruits with a total value of 353 million Euro (only 1.3% more), as well as 189 million Euro worth of fresh vegetables. Taking into account that the tariff heading 08 for unpreserved fruits also includes nuts (more than 200 million Euro up to June in imports from California, part of which is re-shipped to Europe), the drop in the overseas sale of fresh fruit is also remarkable in the province.
By contrast, the value of fruit and vegetable exports from the Region of Valencia up to September has been estimated at 2,305 million Euro (up 13%). For Spain as a whole, horticultural exports grew in the same period by 8% in volume and 14% in value, reaching 8.673 million Euro.
The representative of the business sector in Spain and the province, Jorge Brotons, attributes these bad results to three key factors, and none of them is the Russian veto. According to Brotons, drought is the most relevant factor to explain the drop in production of the main summer vegetables, namely tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and courgettes, among others.
Anecoop buying at origin
The second factor is what Jorge Brotons called "internal outsourcing" of the production. There are very important operators, such as first-degree cooperative Anecoop (eight international companies and four branches in the Spanish territory, with active presence in nine provinces) which buy the goods "at origin" to local producers in Alicante, but then move them through Valencia's Customs, where they have their main facilities to ship the products to European markets or other continents. This results in a decline in the total volume registered by Alicante's Customs.
The third factor is the "sharp decline" in the export of table grapes, both with and without the Vinalopoó designation of origin. FEPEX has not yet sufficient information on the reduction, although one reason may be the increasing competition posed in European markets by grapes from third countries, mainly from Latin America and even North Africa. For FEPEX, the export growth is mainly attributable to the good performance of consumer demand in the whole EU, natural market for the Spanish sector, with growths reaching 17% in Germany, 16% in the United Kingdom and 15% in France. FEPEX highlights a further growth in value due to the new formats.
