2023-06-11 05:52:36
Spanish farmers are facing a new perfect storm. Melons and watermelons imported from Senegal, Brazil or Morocco are fraudulently labeled as a national product; Spanish melons and watermelons compete at a disadvantage with those from these countries where labor is up to 10 times cheaper and sanitary criteria are more lax; Spanish supermarkets are betting on import to “distort” the offer and prices and, to top it off, the drop in temperatures has slowed down the consumption of these fruits linked to summer. The visible face of these ravages is Manuel Puertas, a farmer from Motril (Granada), who has gone viral for his decision to give away 100,000 kilos of watermelons that he had harvested this season after the collapse in prices and not getting any marketer to give preference to his product compared to the one that comes from Africa.
Manuel has preferred to give away his watermelons rather than let them rot. “I have opened the doors and people have already taken 80,000 kilos,” he explains to LA RAZÓN, which has meant losses of “between 25,000 and 30,000 euros”, an “authentic ruin”. This farmer denounces not only that the distributors pay badly, having in many cases to sell at a loss, but that they directly prefer to buy the fruit from Morocco because of its lower production cost. «We send ours abroad, which is good, or we have to throw it away and we bring the garbage that other countries do not want to sell it here. We are a bargaining chip when there is a law that says that we cannot sell at a loss, but they are not complying with it, ”he criticizes. After his case went viral, a multitude of neighbors have come to try to help him by paying him a percentage of the watermelons he gave away, a nice gesture that still is not capable of compensating for the thousands of euros lost. But Manuel is not the only farmer who has had to make this difficult decision. «In the town there are four of us who are in the same situation and in the entire area about 100 people who have had to open the doors or bring in the cattle so they can eat the watermelons. This is affecting cucumbers, beans, melons, tomatoes and many other products. We are selling at a loss », he says.
The outlook for farmers is further clouded by the labeling of watermelons and melons from Senegal, Brazil or Morocco is a fraud. This was denounced by COAG a few weeks ago after detecting that this type of fruit did not specify the origin or was labeled as a false national product when sold in quarters or half pieces, while it did indicate that they were imported when sold whole. “Some Spanish businessmen go to Morocco, grow crops there, bring it to Spain and when they arrive at the stores they close the doors, change the label and say that it is a Spanish product,” Manuel explains in this regard.
Andrés Góngora, responsible for fruit and vegetables at COAG, explains to this newspaper that the small Spanish producer is not going to Morocco, but Those companies that want to invest have it easier there because European regulations are stricter in every way. Europe is shooting itself in the foot. We are competing with local norms in a global market. There are producers who will have to cease their activity. It has already happened with the green bean, whose production has disappeared in Spain because it requires a lot of labor, something that is 10 times cheaper in Morocco than here,” he says. In addition, the fact that Spanish producers and those from other parts of Europe go to Morocco to lower costs and then import into the EU is also destroying the traditional Moroccan farmer. “The objective of the Association Agreement between the EU and Morocco was to strengthen the economic development of the rural areas of Morocco so that its inhabitants did not have to leave, but it continues to happen,” explains Góngora.
If the glass is already about to overflow, another drop that contributes to the suffocation of the Spanish countryside is the use that supermarkets make of imports as a “distorting element” of prices. Góngora points out that if demand is strong and supply is normal, prices at origin go up, but what supermarkets do is distort this rule with imports, so that there is more supply and the prices of Spanish products fall.
Two out of every three watermelons imported into Spain come from Morocco and Senegal. José Ugarrio, a technician from the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja), explains that imports from these countries have increased by 60% in the last five years: “The market is saturated with imports and with the drop in temperatures the consumption of watermelon and melon has come to a standstill, so the price at origin has fallen radically”. Yet another factor that gives the final blow to farmers in Granada, Almería, Alicante or Murcia, areas where torrential rains have devastated the watermelon and melon crops that ripen outdoors.
Manuel laments that the episodes of farmers having to throw away or give away their crops have been taking place for 20 years and have no sign of improving, because in many cases the prices paid by large stores do not even cover costs. «What cannot be is that they pay me 20 cents per kilo of watermelon and in the supermarket they sell it for 1.20, 1.40 or 1.60 euros. Farmers are the main link in the chain, but also the last one”, complaint.
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