Thursday, March 28

The farmers denounce that they give away 35% of the lemon to be able to sell the harvest



The lemon campaign in the Vega Baja began “limping before the massive influx of citrus from South Africa, the few sales operations and low prices” and now, says Young Farmers Asaja Alicante, “it seems that there are some companies that have decided to get a slice of the situation of crisis and uncertainty experienced by producers ”. The agrarian organization publicly denounced yesterday that the way of proceeding of certain intermediary companies and speculators is becoming “a standardized practice” that they are “the only ones” that are making cuts in the lemon farms and that by means of a contract they agree with the farmer a sale price. But with the novelty “of not specifying in it the percentage of destruction of the harvest.” The “surprise” comes when the farmer has had his farm cut down – picked up the lemon – and, of the agreed kilos, “half are not paid because they have been destined for destruction, that is, for the citrus industry.”

Lemons, said the same sources, that they are “in perfect conditions for sale and consumption” and that the producers “suspect that they are being handled, packaged and destined for export for fresh consumption.” This organization of agricultural producers is going to inform the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) of those operations that it calls “fraudulent”. And it is going to ask that exporters be required “urgently” that, upon the arrival of lemons from which no one knows their origin, “it is essential to demonstrate their traceability”, as well as the establishment of penalties in case of detecting this type of fraud .

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“We are very afraid that these lemons are being reclassified and packaged in warehouses and reselling to exporters for fresh consumption, even robbing producers between 30 and 35% of the harvest. It is inadmissible that exporters do not find out where these lemons come from and are complicit in participating in this robbery of the producer, “said the president of Jóvenes Agricultores, José Vicente Andreu.

Intimidation

For several weeks, several farmers have been victims of “this unfair practice” and have reported this fact to the organization. “Unfortunately we are collecting multiple complaints that relate the same situation. These intermediaries reach a sale agreement with the farmer without specifying destrio, “which normally tends to be around 3-5% of the total harvest and which previously was always concluded in a contract, according to Andreu.

As an example, of the 300,000 kilos of lemon that they cut from a farmer, they paid him 135,000 kilos and 150,000 “they take them free because they are classified as destrio, when the businessman finds that more than half of those discarded were in perfect condition” . For Andreu «they are belittling and abusing the weakest link in the chain: production and the farmer … with different kinds of intimidation and consummating a full-blown scam, under the threat that, if you put any hit or disagree, you will not agree They cut your fruit – they don’t buy it – taking advantage of a market structure that penalizes the farmer. We must pursue this type of practices and market operators that only contribute to corruption and definitely provide the market with transparency, “reiterated Andreu.

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“It doesn’t make sense for farmers to lose 50% of their production as industrial lemons, when the industry is processing much less lemons than last year and less is being exported. Fact that shows that this destruction is reprocessed and is mostly sent to the fresh trade, which confirms the fraud that is being committed ». Asaja hopes that Ailimpo (the Lemon and Grapefruit Interprofessional Association) “will take action on the matter immediately as a representative body of the entire sector, which must ensure the balance and proper functioning of the productive system, commerce and industry.” Asaja also takes the opportunity to denounce “another situation of abuse and that is that supermarkets have raised their retail prices by 20% and have lowered the prices at which they buy lemons by 30%, in a shameful way, again violating the Law of the Food Chain, which has just been reformed to prohibit selling at a loss ”.

40% of the national production of lemons in Spain has its origin in the terraces of the orchard and the field of the Vega Baja. The region generates almost 30% of the national turnover with 90% of the ten thousand hectares planted with lemon trees in the province of Alicante.


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