“We cannot say that the season that is ending was a good campaign”, said the president of AlgarOrange, José Oliveira, noting that, although this campaign was not greatly affected by water scarcity, the next ones could be, if it doesn’t rain more in the future.

In this sense, the person in charge of the association, which brings together 40% of citrus fruit operators in the Algarve, said he was “afraid of what is to come, mainly due to the prospect of a continued lack of water in the future”.

José Oliveira indicated that, in the region where almost 90% of citrus fruit is produced in Portugal, production this year “increased by 15 to 20% compared to a normal year”, but underlined, however, that this increase “was not accompanied by an increase in the value of the product”.

Another problem has to do with the contraction in demand, which caused a decrease in prices and a diversion of production from household consumption to industry, which pays “much lower” prices, he noted.

“We cannot say that we are satisfied, when it was a very difficult season and the next one could be more problematic than the last one”, insisted José Oliveira.