The great export debate

Three of Spain’s best-known exports are olive oil, oranges and wine – produced by the mega ton. But recent ugly reports of farmers blockading the A-44 in Granada last week, with burning tyres made everyone stop and wonder what was happening.

Spain’s olive oil industry is feeling the impact after the US government imposed a 25% tariff on bottled Spanish olive oil at the end of last year. But strangely and rather shockingly, the same tax has not been placed on imports from Italy, Greece or Portugal!

Spanish exports have already dropped dramatically from 85,000 tons in November and 106,000 in October to 70,000 tons. Cooperatives still have stock of olive oil left over from the previous harvest and are forced to sell it super cheap to make room for the new glut. I must say that looking around the supermarkets recently, the price of the olive oils on the shelves have been reduced quite substantially… and that explains why. We are all happy when we can get a bargain, I mean, €2.15 for a litre of this amber nectar is a steal, but then when you read about the reason it doesn’t seem quite so exciting... it didn’t stop me stocking up though!

However, it’s not just olives, but the entire agriculture sector that is being affected. Agricultural insurance premiums have gone up as well as fertilizer and diesel costs. Now put minimum wages into the equation…. The official minimum wage was hiked up in July 2019 to €1,050 per month and only last month yet again and now stands at €1,108! But here in Spain wages, like pensions are divided into 14 equal instalments to allow for ‘double money’ in July and December, a Spanish tradition to give people enough money for their summer holiday and at Christmas. Mind you, try and find someone earning this new minimum wage and I bet you’ll struggle.

Many of the oranges, especially around Alfaz, Altea seem to be picked by Ecuadorians whereas fruit and vegetables down Murcia way are picked by East Europeans and I bet my bottom dollar they certainly aren’t on anywhere near this purported amount.

But it’s no different in the UK – or certainly wasn’t pre-Brexit. The farms in Lincolnshire where they grow crops probably don’t have any British workers. I remember watching a television program about it some years ago and how the farmers wanted to employ local people, but none would work for the money being offered. It’s a vicious circle – if you paid the proper rate then the selling price would be so extortionate that no-one would buy the produce. We all want cheap food, clothes, etc.

Now so much comes from China, where labour is cheap, others cannot possibly compete on price. The likes of Primark give us disposable fashion but take a minute to think about it. If you are paying €2 for a t-shirt, then work backwards to estimate how much the workers are being paid. It’s not rocket science to realise not very much at all. Would you work for say 50p an hour? Absolutely not I hear you all cry. Yet many wouldn’t pay €15 or €20 for that same garment if the worker was paid the proper rate would they?

The price of wholesale grapes paid to the farmers is what it was 20 years ago making it virtually impossible to carry on. I have seen oranges left on the tress locally because it costs more to pick them than what they are being paid by the supermarkets. Like dairy farmers in the UK, they were throwing milk down the drains as it cost more to process and bottle than what the likes of Tesco were paying them.

With the UK now departed, it will be interesting to monitor over this year the impact of import and export taxes after these negotiations. Currently you can purchase a plethora of fruit and veg in the UK that is out of season as it is flown from across the world – it doesn’t seem to happen so much here I find. But then we have weekly markets in almost every town where locally – or ‘localish’ grown produce is sold. They don’t fly it thousands of miles across the world, polluting the environment. Maybe we should all just think about what we eat and where it comes from.

Back in the ‘old days’ you ate what was in season, growing your own so maybe we should go back to that way… wonder what they’ll be eating in the UK then! www.benidormallyearround.com