Spanish agricultural exporters look to China and Saudi Arabia to avoid dependence on the EU

(Agraria.pe) The main foreign client of Spanish farmers is the European Union, which accounted for 83% of the total fruits and vegetables exported by that country in 2023, with 9.4 million tons. However, this situation of dependence does not please the sector, which is looking for a turnaround, betting on other non-EU markets, such as China or Saudi Arabia, that allow it to diversify. In recent years, Spanish fruit and vegetable crops have been affected by factors such as the lack of water resources, adverse weather conditions, with hail or repeated episodes of heat, and the increase in production costs. All this has affected the robustness of a sector that has also suffered from the increase in the entry of products from third countries; in total, imports in Spain grew in 2023 by 7% in volume and 19% in value, according to official data, collected by EFE. They have also grown at a European level: the countries of the European Union are registering an increase in the presence of ...