Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
watermelon and melon (MartÃnez-Carrasco
and Calatrava, 1996).
Export, mainly to European markets,
involves around 43% of the production,
allocating the rest (57%) to the national
market, although part of it may be reissued
to foreign markets (MartÃnez-Carrasco and
Calatrava, 1996). In this text, we consider
'national' to refer only to the Spanish mar-
ket, including the market of other countries
belonging to the European Union within the
'foreign' market.
Generally, horticultural handling and
trade companies in Spain nowadays are
small, as is their corporate structure.
In Europe, the supermarket chains are
the main vegetable distribution channels,
and their importance is increasing. Today,
Spain and The Netherlands are the main
suppliers of the two main high-value vege-
table markets in Europe: (i) the German
market where price is essential; and (ii) the
British market based on added value and
quality more than the price (Wijnands,
2003). Non-European Mediterranean coun-
tries (Turkey, Morocco, Egypt) are becoming
important competitors, especially for Spain,
because their production calendars are
closer to those of Spain than to those of
The Netherlands.
in the latter region (Jensen and Malter, 1995).
From an energy point of view, it is much
cheaper to transport tomatoes cultivated
in southern latitudes in the winter period
in the USA, than to grow them near the
consumption centres, at higher latitudes
such as Ohio (Jensen and Malter, 1995).
A similar situation happens in Europe
with the production in climate control
greenhouses in the north of Europe, in
relation to the Mediterranean green-
houses, during the winter period.
Obviously, the quality condition of the
commodities play a key role in the con-
sumer's perception, especially in prod-
ucts like tomato, and can contribute to
increasing the acceptance of locally
grown products, adapted to the consum-
er's demands for product quality.
Despite the great variability in the pro-
duction costs, typical of Mediterranean
greenhouses, Table 16.1 summarizes
approximations of the production costs and
the integral cost price in the market of
tomato, pepper and cucumber for the best
growers in The Netherlands and Spain.
The 'Dutch greenhouse agrosystem' has
much higher levels of production than the
'Mediterranean greenhouse agrosystem',
but its production costs are also much
higher. In Spain, the marketing costs (differ-
ence between the integral cost price on the
market and the production cost) are higher
than in The Netherlands, mainly due to the
higher transportation costs.
A similar situation occurs in Morocco
with respect to Spain, for tomato costs
(Table 16.2). Although the growing cycles in
Morocco are restricted by the exportation
calendars to the European Union, which
limits their harvest nowadays, the produc-
tion costs are lower than in Spain, but the
higher transportation costs decrease the dif-
ferences, limiting the competitiveness. The
extension of the growing cycles in Morocco,
as their exportation calendars are expand-
ing due to recent commercial agreements
(2010), means that they are increasing in
their competitiveness in the European mar-
ket, and this will continue to rise in the
future if transport costs do not change in a
serious way.
In general, horticultural products are
consumed close to the production area,
given their perishable nature and the
transport costs, expeditions to faraway
countries being very limited. Around
95% of the European production of vege-
tables is consumed at no greater distances
than 1000 km from the production regions
(Wijnands, 2003), although some areas
direct a larger part of their production to
more distant markets, such as the south
of Spain.
The energy required to produce 1 kg
of greenhouse tomatoes in Ohio (north of
the USA) is more than three times that of
the energy used in Arizona (south of the
USA), due to the better climate conditions
