Spain: The CAP eco-regimes boost legume production but sink prices denounce the UPA-COAG Alliance

Published 2024년 9월 16일

Tridge summary

Luis Miguel Mota, a legume producer from Zamora, discusses the financial difficulties faced by Spanish legume farmers, who now earn much less per kilo of chickpeas than in previous decades. The UPA-COAG Alliance notes that the CAP's eco-regime requirements have doubled legume production in Castilla y León, leading to a drop in prices. Despite Spain importing 80% of its legumes, local farmers struggle with competition from more uniform and profitable imports, unclear product origin labeling, and restrictions on phytosanitary products. The sector is further hindered by a lack of marketing structures, research into better varieties, and intermediaries who do not follow fair payment practices.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Luis Miguel Mota, a legume producer from the UPA-COAG Alliance in Zamora, says: “Today I am charging 45 cents per kilo of chickpeas, however, my father charged more than 66 cents (110 pesetas) in 1986.” The UPA-COAG Alliance denounces that this sector is going through a complex situation. The CAP requires the cultivation of improving products to comply with eco-regimes; one of these improving crops is legumes; as a consequence of this community requirement, legume production in Castilla y León has doubled in two years. For example, in chickpeas it has gone from 35,000 hectares sown in 2023 to 65,000 cultivated in 2024. While in lentils or beans the increases have been more modest, around 20 percent. Even so, as a consequence, prices have plummeted. In the case of chickpeas, the price has fallen by half. In the areas of Zamora and Salamanca, where the Pedrosillano chickpea is grown, the kilo was sold for around 90 cents or one euro in 2023 (when there was low production due to ...

Source: Agrodigital