The President of Asaja Extremadura, Bibiano Serrano said that "there is no fundamental reason or specific gravity" that can determine a fall in the price of tomatoes for processing and found that this decrease may reflect the intention of the industry "leaving very low prices" with a view to liberalizing the sector next year.
Thus, demand to the industry to be "loyal" with the sector otherwise "you can load the hen that lays the golden eggs" and influenced the strength and importance of the Tomato sector in the region, with 18 processors and more than 70 percent of the area and production nationwide.
The farm leader said at a press conference that, for this season, the deadline for submission of contracts is 15 February, the industry may have the intention to lower the price of tomatoes in about 2 or 2.5 pesetas per kilo, which would be paid a ton for "just under 60 euros."
This found that, with the same production this year (1.8 million tons), this decrease would mean a revenue loss of about "22 or 23 million" for next season.
According to Serrano, this situation occurs because the Board and the former Ministry of Agriculture "ignored" the requests of the Tomato sector consisting of a total decoupling of aid that would have prevented the penalties in the sector, which this year exceeds 30%, and only can be part of the tomato sector exclusively the historical growers..
"They have names and surnames, the culprits of this problem and they are the Ministry of Agriculture and the Extremadura Board for leaving literally thrown the tomato sector and for leaving in the hands of industry to this sector," said Bibiano Serrano.
In this regard, the president of Extremadura Apag and Asaja said that in order to recover the aid of 1,100 euros per hectare, the growers need a contract from the industry and it have to be responsible for the crop and its transformation, so the "one who puts a price to the Tomato is the industry. "
"The tomato industry is in the hands of industry and its totally helpless by the mismanagement of the two administrations," he said.
At the same time, Bibiano Serrano asks for caution to the producer sector and called for a reduction in planting tomatoes because the " culture of massification " puts producers "in the hands of the industry."
"We will mark those patterns if we are capable of controlling the cultivation, and we must be able to control the crop, we can not overstate the crop and we can not go more than 10,000 acres beyond what we can plant to recover the full aid , "he said.
Last season
Bibiano Serrano also announced that, nationally, was planted during the last season, 35,060 acres of tomatoes for processing, of which 25,463 are in Extremadura, which represents over 72% of the national area.
The National production was 2.5 million tonnes, of which over 1.8 million tons were come from Extremadura, ie 74.79% of tomato production nationwide.
Serrano said both the quality and quantity, last season was "good" with an average yield near to 74,000 kilos of tomatoes per hectare, one of the highest yields in Spain, which is shown, according to Serrano, the professionalism and development of the sector in the region.
In contrast, the profitability of this crop has been "awful" because, despite the "excellent" quality and performance, tomato growers have a penalty of 30% over the aids.
He explained that in 2009 have been planted more thant 10,370 hectares, so the producers will have a penalty that exceeds 30% over the aids, and instead of charging 1138 euros, which claimed last year, it will be charged 793 euros per hectare of planted tomato.
Serrano also said that the price of this crop is "lying on the ground" and said that it is around 72 euros per tonne.
www.20minutos.es - 9 February 2010 |