Spain has 800,000 ha of Organic agriculture
The president of the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture, José Luis Porcuna said yesterday that Spain has reached in the last decade to 800,000 from 10,000 hectares to organic agriculture, an area which remains low "for other countries" but has a great growing.
According to the representative of the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture, the biological citrus in Spain "is at very low levels", a fact which is even more significant in intensive crops and vegetables.
This is partly due, says Porcuna "Spain is rather late to incorporate organic agriculture in comparison with other countries, But despite that, "growth is very strong and sustained."
About aid to these alternative crops, he noted that there are subsidies from the European Union, the Agriculture Ministry and the Autonomous Communities, but believes that are "not enough" and remain "low".
Regarding the situation of organic citrus in Spain, the three main regions devoted to this crop remain Andalucía, Murcia and the Valencian Community, and the intrusion and conversion of fields to organic production "goes hand in hand" in these three areas.
"Development in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, having larger and young farms, is faster, while in Valencia, although there is less surface area, there are large numbers of organic citrus," said Porcuna.
In the day also spoke Alfons Dominguez, a member of the Agricultural Experimental Station and a specialist Carcaixent in organic citrus fruit, which addressed the situation and development of this crop in Spain.
According to Dominguez, Valencia devoted almost a quarter of all agricultural land to citrus production, which involves "more than 60 percent of total production of citrus in Spain, far from the following regions, Andalusia, with 20 percent or Murcia with 12 percent. "
Receiving countries are European Union, notably Germany and France.
Despite these data, "the Spanish organic citrus, and Valencian in particular, is far from being one of the dominant culture or expectation of more development," Dominguez says.
"The total area used for organic citrus is 0.5 percent in Spain, in Andalusia 2 percent or 0.13 per cent in Valencia," he adds.