The Fruit Logistica in Berling gave the Region of Murcia a chance to enjoy its status as the leading Spanish province in terms of fruit and vegetable exports to the rest of the world.
A large delegation from Murcia was present at the regional stand at the event, promoting a sector which last year achieved exports of 2,440 million euros. That is equivalent to 30% of all exports from the Region, and the figure demonstrates the extent to which, despite diversification into other fields, Murcia is still best known abroad as the market garden and orchard of Spain and the rest of Europe.
So intense is the agricultural activity in Murcia that last year 19.45% of all Spanish fruit and veg exports came from the Region, according to regional government minister, Juan Hernandez, with the main markets remaining those of Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy. Outside Europe, the most important customers are in Saudi Arabia, the USA and the UAE.
At the same time, it is worth pointing out that the efficiency of agricultural techniques and technology is constantly improving and in the first ten months of 2016 the volume of exports was 4% higher than in the equivalent period the year before.
According to Adela Martinez-Cache, the regional minister for Agriculture, the main export products are lettuce, cabbages, cauliflowers, grapes, melons, water melons, papaya and apricots, and the minister also went on to add that in the first 11 months of last year the volume of exports sold by 612 companies reached 10.6 million tons.
Murcia's 500-square-metre stand at the Berlin event was colourfully decorated under the slogan "Region de Murcia, Europe's Orchard", and prominence was also given to the factors of "Water, Land and Sun".
Also present on the Murcia stand were the Port of Cartagena and 35 companies, as well as the marketing board of the Jumilla pear producing sector, which enjoys Denomination of Origin status.
source: muricatoday.com