The fruits and vegetables in the stores have gone from being in green numbers to being dyed in the red of alarms with prohibitive figures for some pockets. Climate change and specifically the drought sow doubt: will these items become luxury products?
Only in March, the price of fresh pulses and vegetables has risen 27.8% compared to the same period of the previous year, and 5.7% compared to last month.
In addition, legume and vegetable preparations have also seen their prices rise by 15% compared to the same month of the previous year, and in the case of fresh fruit there has been a small price drop of 0.1 % compared to February but an annual increase of 5.6%.
For the spokesman of the COAG Executive, Andrés Góngora, the rise in prices is the only alternative that the primary sector manages, and specifically the fruit and vegetable sector, to face all the situations that producers are going through.
A few months ago, the factor that determined both the price and the quality of the crops on the market were frost, hail or short periods of heavy rain; Now, the agenda is marked by the drought that plagues, in general, the entire country.
Farmers from different parts of the peninsula alert about the effects that the lack of rain can have in the short and long term, and for example from Catalonia they have emphasized that there may not be summer crops due to the lack of water.
This situation is also repeated in Andalusia, where the producers of the San Sebastián cooperative, in Lora del Río (Seville), have argued that, beyond the fact that the price is expensive, the main problem is that "there will be no product". if a dry spring is maintained.
Stone fruit is an example. The manager of the technical department of the cooperative, Mercedes Oliver, has highlighted in statements to Efeagro the exceptional situation that this product is suffering due to the drought and the decrease in its production.
The COAG spokesman adds the decline in citrus production while warning that, due to weather conditions, some producers in the country have already considered the idea of "abandoning" this crop due to its low profitability, as has already happened. with the green bean.
At specific moments last summer, the price of melon and watermelon on supermarket shelves reached 12 and 13 euros, due to the end of the Moroccan season, the delay of a few weeks in the harvest due to the rains and low spring temperatures.
When asked if these figures could be repeated again, Góngora is cautious, since "every year is different" and it is still early to make estimates, however, the general trend of fresh fruits and vegetables is towards an increase of their prices.
For Góngora, the only viable solution for the sector is the "reconversion" towards a rise in prices, since, without it, producers cannot sustain the increase in production costs without affecting the wages of workers.
In the spokesman's opinion, the future looks "very difficult" and, ultimately, it will be consumers who will be forced to "pay more" for fruits and vegetables due to the absence of palliative measures to curb to factors such as drought.
The researcher attached to the Campus of International Agri-Food Excellence (ceiA3), Emilio Camacho, is part of the expert committee on drought appointed by the Junta de Andalucía and where he observes the risks of lack of rain and what tools can be used to alleviate their consequences.
For Camacho, the effects of the drought on crops can be alleviated with the use of "new technologies and monitoring through images", although he warns that production in places like the Guadalquivir basin is already very complicated due to a complete lack of water.
Despite the fact that periods of drought tend to occur constantly throughout the years, the current trend is towards a total decrease in rainfall, according to the researcher.
Adapting to this situation that has become structural with palliative measures is essential both for producers in order not to lose their crops, and so that consumers do not end up seeing fruits and vegetables turned into luxury items.
