The devaluation of the Egyptian pound pushes the price of oranges even further down the floor

If there is a country that in recent months has kept Castellón's citrus producers awake at night, it is Egypt. In January and February alone, the North African giant sent 111,557 tons of oranges to Europe, 56% more than in the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture. A massive entry of fruit into markets such as the French, the German and the Belgian that has cut off the demand for Spanish citrus fruits and has caused prices in the field, which in the first part of the campaign reached high values, to end by soil. Egypt is already the king of the orange and its success is explained by a concatenation of factors. And some are better known than others. In recent years, and thanks to large investments from the Government, thousands and thousands of desert hectares near the Nile have been transformed into citrus plantations; Its production costs are much cheaper thanks to salaries that have nothing to do with those in Spain (the average ...