Can drought turn fruits and vegetables into luxury items?

The fruit and vegetables the store is no longer in green numbers be colored red by alarm with unattainable figures for some pockets because climate changes and especially droughtsow doubt: will these objects become luxury goods?

Only in March, price from legumes and Fresh vegetables compared to the same period last year, it is higher by 27.8%, and compared to last month by 5.7%.

In addition, preparations legumes and vegetables Their prices also increased by 15% compared to the same month last year, and for fresh fruit, there was a small drop of 0.1% compared to February, but a growth of 5.6% annually.

For COAG Executive Board spokesman Andrés Góngora, price increases are the only alternative primary sectorand especially fruits and vegetablesto face all the situations that producers go through.

A few months ago, the factor that determined both price and quality crops there was frost, hail or short-term heavy rain on the market; now the agenda is marked drought which plagues, in general, the whole country.

Farmers from different parts of the peninsula warn of the short-term and long-term consequences of the lack of rain, and from Catalonia, for example, point out that there may not be crops for the summer due to lack of water.

A situation that is also repeated in Andalusia, where the producers of the cooperative San Sebastián, in Lora del Río (Seville), claimed that, apart from the fact that the price is high, the main problem is that “there will be no product”. if there is a dry spring.

stone fruit As an example, the head of the technical department of the cooperative, Mercedes Oliver, in her statements to EFE, pointed out the exceptional situation in which this product finds itself due to the drought and reduced production.

A COAG spokesperson adds to the decline in citrus production, warning that due to weather conditions, some producers in the country have already considered the idea of ​​”abandoning” this crop due to low profitability, as has already happened. beans.

PRECEDENT

At certain times last summer, the price of melon and watermelon On the supermarket shelves, it reached 12 and 13 euros, due to the end of the Moroccan season, several weeks of delay in harvesting due to rains and low spring temperatures.

When asked if these figures can be repeated again, Góngora is cautious because “every year is different” and it is too early to give estimates, however, the general trend for fresh fruit and vegetables is towards increasing prices.

CONVERT OR DIE

For Góngora, the only sustainable solution for the sector is “reconversion” towards rising prices, because without this, producers cannot bear the increase in production costs without affecting workers’ wages.

According to the spokesman, the future looks “very difficult” and ultimately it will be consumers who will be forced to “pay more” for fruit and vegetables due to the absence of palliative measures to combat factors such as drought.

TOOLS AGAINST DROUGHT

A researcher attached to the Campus of International Agri-Food Excellence (ceiA3), Emilio Camacho, is part of the Drought Expert Committee appointed by the Junta de Andalucía where he looks at the risks lack of rain and what tools can be used to mitigate its consequences.

For Camacho, the drought’s effects on crops can be mitigated using “new technologies and imaging monitoring”, 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 occur repeatedly over the years, the current trend is towards a complete decrease in precipitation, according to the researcher.

Adaptation to this situation, which has become structural with palliative measures, is necessary both for producers so that they do not lose their crops, and so that consumers do not see fruits and vegetables transformed into luxury items.