MADRID: The province of Granada’s cherimoya exports to the European Union have increased by 18 percent in the first four months of the 2016-17 harvest season.
According to data from the Centre for Technical Assistance and Inspection of Foreign Trade (Soivre), a body under the Ministry of the Economy, more than 1.55 million kilos of the fruit had been exported to the European Union up to December, compared to 1.32 million kilos in the same period last year, representing an increase of more than 18 percent.
In December, the main export destinations were Portugal, with over 105,000 thousand kilos, and Germany, with more than 67,500 kilos, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Belgium.
If this trend of growing cherimoya exports continues, the 2016-17 harvest could get close to the target set by the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin, which aims to reach two and a half million kilos.
The cherimoya campaign lasts for about nine months, starting in September and ending in May, thanks to the advances made in recent years, which are reducing the product’s seasonality. The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Chirimoya de la Costa Tropical de Granada-Málaga was expected to exceed 50,000 tonnes during the current season; a figure that will eventually be reduced by around 15 percent due to the high temperatures recorded at the beginning of the campaign.
The president of the Regulatory Council of the PDO, Antonio Sánchez, told Efe that despite the high temperatures early in the season and the low ones recorded at present, the campaign could close with around 45,000 tonnes.
Sánchez added that more than 80 percent of the cherimoya production is sold in the Spanish market and the rest is exported to different countries.
The Regulatory Council recalled that the only area in Europe where cherimoya trees can be cultivated is in the south of Andalusia, being grown mostly in the strip of coast from Motril to La Herradura, and on the coast of Malaga, in the region of La Axarquía. At present, there are more than 3,100 hectares, of which a little more than 2,500 correspond to the coast of Granada and more than 500 to Malaga.
