HORADADA COOPERATIVE DESTROYS PEPPERS WORTH HALF A MILLION EURO

The victims of the German cucumber crisis have now spread into the local area with Surinver, a Pilar de la Horadada cooperative, being forced, last week alone, to destroy peppers worth almost half a million euro.

Because of the alarm caused by the German outcry, Surinver exports to central Europe have collapsed, affecting the entire production of the cooperative along the coastal municipality. It would appear that even following the German's hurried retreat the consumer is still extremely wary of all Spanish fruit and vegetables, considering that despite the ‘all clear' it still remains contaminated.

Sales manager. José Gacercía, explains that exports of peppers are usually very strong at this time. “We do not harvest cucumber but the alarm has now been extended to other vegetables. We hope that the situation is quick to return to normal but in the meantime we have already lost many of our exports to Central Europe. This cooperative has suffered an impact that has paralysed all our exports abroad, especially for orders to Austria.”

The initial losses are estimated at about 500,000 euros, but for now Surinver will not ask for help from the Department of Agriculture which is understood to have already asked producers of vegetables to make a first analysis of the damage.

“The alarm during the 'cucumber crisis' has damaged the entire Spanish production of the fruit and vegetables,” said Gacercía “but we desperately hope that the market can be returned to normal within the next month or so. However, even if that is the case there will still be many producers who are unable to fully recover. Fortunately domestic consumption of our products has not been affected.”