• Representatives from all member colleges of Andalucía, Murcia, and the Valencian Community analyse the evolution of the campaign: concern over the record numbers of South African oranges imported during the local campaign, the increasing presence of cheap offerings from Egypt, and the consequences of the war in Ukraine on the citrus market of the EU.

• The interprofessional organization creates three working groups: one to resume promotional campaigns, another to study European legislation on food safety, plant health, quality, and competition, and a third for the analysis contracts.

Intercitrus held its general assembly this morning at the facilities of the Cooperative of Producers of Alcalá del Río (Seville). It was the perfect setting to reaffirm unity around this organization, which integrates orange and mandarin producers and marketers from across the country, with Andalucía, Murcia, and the Valencian Community playing crucial roles. Inmaculada Sanfeliu, its president, conducted a comprehensive analysis of the “poor” – as she put it – evolution of the current campaign. This season has been determined by the delay in shipments to Europe from the main non-EU supplier, South Africa, which marketed a record tonnage of oranges during September, October, and even November “when our season had already started, and at unusually low prices.” For this reason, and due to the increasing threat from the cheap offerings from Egypt, which already “flooded the EU with their Valencia oranges” in the last months of the previous season and is on track to repeat the same scenario this season. Furthermore, as Sanfeliu continued, the war in Ukraine and sanctions against the Putin regime “could disrupt the delicate market balances and lead to a massive diversion to the EU and the UK of the tonnage that Morocco, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt have been exporting to Russia.” Hence, “now more than ever, we need a strong, cohesive interprofessional organization with the capacity for dialogue with Madrid and Brussels to make progress in reciprocity,” i.e., ensuring that all citrus entering the EU meet the same labour, social, environmental, phytosanitary, and food safety requirements as European citrus growers.

Moreover, over the course of this century, more than 16 foreign pests and diseases have been introduced into Spanish citrus cultivation. Therefore, advancing in plant health is a second major priority for the interprofessional. After more than five years of unsuccessfully advocating for it separately, this season the sector has achieved the milestone of EU approval for cold treatment for orange imports from all countries affected by the False Codling Moth. “This achievement demonstrates the capacity we have if we remain cohesive around this interprofessional,” Sanfeliu advanced, and many other representatives echoed in their remarks. Cristóbal Aguado, president of AVA-ASAJA, also wanted to emphasize in this regard that, despite the unilateral absence of representatives from ASAJA-Andalucía, ASAJA (national) is “fully represented” in Intercitrus, and the “doors of the organization remain open” for their re-entry. Regarding cold treatment – now in the appeals phase – there was an emphasis on the need to intensify pressure and lobbying efforts on the Spanish government and the European Commission to ensure that the new regulation is implemented this summer when the southern hemisphere’s shipping season begins.

With the intention of gaining operationality in the strategic objectives defined by the interprofessional, it has been decided to create three specific working groups. On one hand, to advance primarily in reciprocity and plant health matters, a commission has been created to study EU legislation on food safety, quality, phytosanitary, and competition. This group, if necessary, may be assisted by an external specialized legal team. The aim is to contribute to the new direction that the French presidency of the EU – aligned with the Spanish government – wants to give to European trade policy, including in such treaties the so-called ‘mirror clauses’. On the other hand, in view of evidence that citrus consumption in Europe may be declining and that space on the shelves of European large-scale retailers is increasingly occupied by other fruits such as tropical fruits, Intercitrus will begin to work on upcoming promotional campaigns and the drafting of a possible regulation extension to finance such advertising and apply for existing European aid. Thirdly, it has been decided to create a third group for the analysis of purchase-sale contracts for oranges and mandarins that complies with the provisions of the Improvement of the Food Chain Law to provide greater legal certainty to citrus growers.

In today’s general assembly, up to 16 sector representatives participated, with evident prominence of those from Andalucía and Murcia. In addition to the president, who also attended on behalf of the Citrus Management Committee (CGC) and the Interprofessional’s director, María Pilar Fos, present were Pedro Gomáriz, Paco Gil (both from COAG-Murcia), Salvador Fernández (COAG-Córdoba), Cristóbal Aguado and Celestino Recatalá (ASAJA-Valencia) – all from the producer college; Francisco Bernal, Jaime Martínez, Lucia Porras, Rocío Soriano, Enrique Santos, Jesús Valencia (all from the Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Spain, CCAE, in Sevilla), Enrique Bellés and Egon Cervera (CCAE, Valencia) – all from the Cooperative Trade College; Juan Manuel Bernal and Lorenzo Reyes (Association of Organizations of Fruit and Vegetable Producers Integrated in the CGC-Huelva) – these two from the Private Associative Trade College.

Before the session began, Rafael Sánchez Trujillo, head of the Plant Health Service of the Andalucía Regional Government, informed attendees about the measures included in the Containment Plan for this region to prevent and, where appropriate, early detect the Trioza erytreae. As is well known, this insect – beyond being a worrying pest in itself – is the vector of HLB, the bacterial disease considered most lethal to citrus cultivation. The African citrus psyllid, as it is also called, since it was first identified in Galicia in 2014, has spread along the Atlantic coast, from Lisbon to the Basque Country. Its recent detection a few months ago in citrus-producing areas of the Algarve places it just a few hundred kilometers from Huelva’s plantations.