The situation for Almeria's producers has barely changed over the past month. By mid-October, COAG Almeria already suggested taking the second category produce out of the market due to the price situation and the request was issued again this week, as tomatoes, aubergines, peppers or cucumbers are still being sold under their production costs.
Tuesday 5 November, aubergine prices stood at around 0.47 Euro per kilo on average, while salad tomatoes reached approximately 0.32 Euro. California peppers, red and green, are being sold by around 0.50 Euro and cucumbers of the Almeria variety barely reach 0.30 Euro per kilo. All these figures, according to COAG Almeria, lie below the production costs for the said vegetables and it has been the case since the beginning of the campaign, although nobody seems to be doing anything to fix this situation. Only courgettes are reaching more than acceptable prices, although this is occurring as a result of the lower production volumes.
According to COAG's data, aubergine prices lie 0.01 Euro under the production costs; not as bad as for products like California peppers, which are being sold by 0.09 Euro under the production costs (estimated at 0.59 Euro), or cucumbers of the Almeria variety, for which growers are losing 0.11 per kilo. As for regular cucumbers, growers receive an average of 0.31 Euro per kilo, compared to the 0.42 Euro that it costs to produce them. Tomato producers, for their part, are selling their produce at a price 0.27 Euro lower than the production costs, at around 0.49 Euro per kilo.
Meanwhile, domestic consumers paid an average of 1.50 Euro per kilo for aubergines; 582% more than what growers are getting, while salad tomatoes are being sold at supermarkets at 1.83 Euro, compared to the 0.27 being paid to growers (578% more). Pepper prices quadrupled those at origin and cucumber prices were six times greater.
Source: fhalmeria.com