The strawberry sector in Spain has come out in defense of this product, which is grown mainly in Huelva, in the face of a campaign by a German association that seeks to prevent supermarkets in this country from selling them so as not to contribute to the desiccation of the National Park of Donana.
The boycott attempt has triggered a new political clash between the Government and the PP, heightened by the backdrop of the general elections on 23-J. If the intention of the Junta de Andalucía, governed by the popular, to expand the irrigated areas in Doñana had already confronted the central Executive with the regional government due to its environmental impact, the German campaign against the Huelva strawberry has raised the decibels of this fight.
The political turmoil has reached such magnitude that the group of German parliamentarians who were going to travel to Andalusia this Monday to find out about strawberry production have canceled the visit. In the middle, strawberry producers and exporters, who fear that the campaign promoted by the German association Campact to demand that supermarket chains stop selling strawberries from Spain will take effect and cause them great economic losses.
The Andalusian Interprofessional for Strawberries and Red Fruits (Interfesa) has indicated this Monday that the strawberries and red fruits produced in Huelva comply with the international certifications and protocols demanded by European supermarkets for responsible water management. 100% of the strawberries and berries exported from the province of Huelva to Germany are certified by the Sustainable Program for Irrigation and Use of Groundwater (Spring), they add.
The sector insists that the "Spring" program is part of the Globalgap certification and endorses the legality of the sources of water supply, including flows and the maximum amount of water allowed. To obtain it, producers and traders must submit a series of documents to the certification bodies approved by Globalgap and which in Spain add up to a total of 19 entities. German supermarkets require this certification and among them are the most relevant: Rewe, Aldi, Lidl, Edeka and Kaufland, according to Interfresa. The distribution has also reacted. The Spanish subsidiary of the German supermarket chain Aldi has assured this Monday that "most" of the strawberries it offers in its stores are from Huelva and that all of them have Spanish origin due to "the demanding quality of the national product".
For its part, the employers' association of fruit and vegetable exporters (Fepex) has insisted that the German campaign is "unjustified". In his opinion, this "does not respond to the productive and economic activity" of the Spanish strawberry sector but to internal German "commercial objectives" to "discredit" competitors and have their market free.
Fepex has also sent a letter this Monday to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, in which he asks him to "come out in defense" of the strawberry sector after the German campaign. This morning, from Cádiz, Planas insisted that the expansion of irrigation in Doñana promoted by the PP in Andalusia will create "problems, for the red fruit sector of Huelva, but also for the Spanish agri-food sector and for the image of Andalusia and of Spain".
And it is that the plan to extend irrigation in the natural park has been confronting the central government with the Junta de Andalucía for months, especially for the cultivation of strawberries in the area adjacent to the national park.
The agrarian organization Asaja has also given its opinion, which last week requested the resignation of the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, for understanding that her messages encouraged the boycott of strawberries from Huelva. Ribera, in statements to the media, and before knowing the suspension of the visit of the German parliamentarians, has indicated that what corresponds is to "resolve the matter" within the Spanish borders, "where the problem has been generated, in the Andalusian Parliament", which he has asked to take "a step back".
In his opinion, "the irrigation proposal brought to the Andalusian Parliament has been made without any kind of consensus, without paying attention to science, to the protection of Doñana, in a space considered a cathedral of the environment." Planas has spoken along the same lines, for whom the visit of the German deputies responded to the "insane" initiative of the PP and Vox of Andalusia to expand irrigation in areas without water and against European legislation.
From the opposition, the PP campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, has called on President Pedro Sánchez to defend the strawberry and Spanish farmers, after the Prime Minister, according to the popular spokesperson, has "indirectly" supported a boycott against national products.
According to data from the Association of Producers and Exporters of Strawberries and Red Fruits of Huelva (Freshuelva) and the Price Observatory of the Junta de Andalucía cited by EFE, the total production of this fruit in the last closed campaign, that of 2021 -2022, reached 270,120 tons.
Of the total production, 80% (some 216,000 tons) was destined for international markets, the main one being Germany, with 64,800 imported tons (30%). So far this season, adverse weather conditions and water shortages have caused a 30% drop in strawberry production and a 25% drop in blueberry production compared to the same date last year, according to EFE data. .
