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 Las bajas cotizaciones de los cereales castigan las rentas de los productores
The low prices of cereals punish the income of producers
05/10/2009
October 5, 2009
The last campaign of winter cereals has been characterized by prices low, the increase in costs and drought. This picture has planted the discouragement among the producers of cereal which have been dulled their income, already punished after the 2008 campaign. Accordingly, decreased 9% the surface dedicated to winter cereals, from 6.18 million hectares in 2008 to 5.65 million during this year. On the other hand, the high temperatures and low rainfall during the grain filling caused a significant drop in yields. At the State level, moved production from 19 million tonnes in 2008 to 13.6 million in 2009, down 28%. Despite the lower production, cereals prices have fallen, with average 0.14 EUR quotes per kilo for soft wheats and 0.12 euros per kilo for the barley core, away from the 0.28 euros per kilo and 0.23 euros per kilorespectively, in October 2007.
Alejandro García-Gasco, responsible for agricultural productions of Coag.
Similarly, imports bound for Spain have skyrocketed due to the low European prices despite a reduction of more than 7% in cereal production. Thus, during the first seven months of the year, Spain bought 139% more wheat than the same period in 2008 (up to 3.15 million tonnes) and 410% more than barley (up 0.58 million tonnes). This situation has aggravated the trend downward of prices in the national domestic market. "The Elimination of the mechanisms of regulation of market after recent reforms of the common agricultural policy (Cap) leaves farmers without any instrument to deal with the ups and downs of the world market for cereals, largely influenced by the speculative spiral which has taken over the prices of raw materials in recent times." "The 2009 campaign of cereals is a clear example of how the market is not only to regulate a strategic sector, basis of the food and feed", said the person in charge of agricultural productions of Coag, Alejandro García-Gasco. Continue this trend, the agrarian organization envisages a further reduction of the area planted for the next campaign coupled with an increase in dependence on the outside. "In these conditions, planting is a totally unviable option for much of the producers", he has regretted Garcia-Gasco. COAG advocates the restoration of the mechanisms of regulation of market, so that farmers can reduce the uncertainty when they plan their campaigns, in a framework of equilibrium and security to limit the influence of speculation.
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Unión de Agricultores y Ganaderos de Aragón
