Oranges from the Algarve began to return to stores in December after several months of absence caused by drops in summer production, which almost brought activity to a halt, said Horácio Ferreira, from the Algarve Citrus Growers Agricultural Cooperative (CACIAL).
The director of the Algarve cooperative pointed out that the 2022/2023 campaign ended with a 50% drop in production in the summer variety and only the use of imported oranges prevented the total stoppage of activity from August until November, when the fruits of a new campaign that is expected to be more positive, he assured.
«The previous [season] proved to be a campaign with a few kilograms, in the last variety, which is the Summer variety. There was 50% less than the normal quantity», Horácio Ferreira told Lusa, stressing that this drop led to the cooperative was «stopped with national oranges in August, September, October and a good part of November».
The person responsible noted that the stoppage did not prevent the cooperative from "being four months with the weight of the structure in operation", in which "expenses increased and revenue decreased drastically", but he declined to give figures, saying only that the losses “they were huge”.
The consequence was that «the Algarve orange only started to appear on the stands on the 4th of December», he pointed out, clarifying that the fruit produced in the region «can only use this term [of Algarve orange] when it is PGI [Geographical Indication Protected]”.
«It may have the correct conditions in terms of ripeness and acidity indexes, but if it is not registered as a PGI it cannot use the term Algarve orange», he explained, indicating that CACIAL has 40 members and works with 120 to 150 producers and has «around 1.200 hectares of citrus fruits, all of them certified and in integrated production», in the region.
The CACIAL director recalled that, at the beginning of the 2022/2023 campaign, it was "coming from a year of overproduction" in which it was already known that "the following year there would be some decline" and production would be "much lower", but he stressed that, for the campaign now underway, “a normal year of production” is expected.
«At this moment, in the campaign that we have just started, with the winter orange, we are almost close to a normal year – almost, because we still have some shortfalls. In the Primavera [variety] we have [expected] some decline and in the last variety, the Valencia Late [late], which last year had a 50% decline, this year is in good production», he estimated.
Horácio Ferreira warned, however, that the activity is being affected by a "water problem" that "is increasingly on the agenda" and which he classified as "terrifying" for Algarve citrus growers, who are increasingly affected by the effects of the drought that hits the Algarve.
«If we see that there are orchards that have perhaps not been watered for a month, this is a catastrophe that is imminent here, especially in the windward [west] area, where the dam has no water and the water for irrigation has already been cut off», he lamented, considering that the lack of water «is no longer a concern, it is a real and serious problem» in the Algarve.
The CACIAL leader gave the example of the Spanish autonomous region of Andalusia, where "they are already thinking about buying water from Alqueva and putting the desalination plants in Almeria to work for human consumption" and not for irrigation, and warned that if it doesn't rain the situation goes “from concern to catastrophe”.
«Where you take it and don't put it in, there's a shortage every day, and it's been many years of taking it and not replacing it», said Horácio Ferreira, recognizing that each producer bears the impact of the drought and lack of water as best they can, while waiting. for better days.
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