This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Asaja Murcia alerta de pérdidas en la producción citrícola regional
Asaja Murcia warning of losses in regional citrus production
15/01/2009
January 15, 2009
Asaja Murcia has shown its concern to the new European rules on plant health, as this could result in losses of up to 40 percent in regional production of citrus fruits. In this regard, the Secretary General of the Association, Alfonso Gálvez Caravaca, has stressed the importance of the citrus industry in regional agriculture, as well as their weight in the overseas market, since, as has been pointed out, the region of Murcia exported last year half a million tonnes of citrus fruits, 281 million of euros, to different latitudes of the planet.
The Asaja Murcia spokesman stressed that the new Community rules is much more "restrictive" than the existing today, as it seeks to eliminate the vast majority of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides used today in agricultural production. In addition, standard raises, by 2013, by up to 50 percent without the use of permitted products, with the enormous impact this would have.
With the restriction of the use of phytosanitary products, crops such as citrus or olive could see diminished his production between 40 and 80%.
