Spain and China have signed an agreement whereby China opens its doors to Spanish almonds and persimmons. This is seen as a historic agreement as talks between the Chinese and Spanish governments have been going on since 2017.
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has achieved a good result with this. Furthermore, sales are estimated at more than €600 million. The size of the agreement could increase to 50,000 tons of almonds by 2025 and another 90,000 tons in 2032. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to China in March certainly helped.
China becomes the main importer of Spanish almonds
With this agreement, China has become one of the main recipient countries of almonds from Spain. Within Europe, France, Germany and Italy are the countries that are the largest recipients. Currently, there are already about 757,000 hectares of land in Spain dedicated to the production of almonds. Over the past ten years, the number of irrigated farms has increased by 32%.
Within the agreement, a number of protocols have already been drawn up, designating plots for the cultivation of the nuts and fruits, the relevant warehouses that have been designated for this purpose and how supervision is carried out from production to export to China.
The total export of agricultural products from Spain currently amounts to more than €68,000 million per year, of which more than €24,000 million is intended for export to non-EU countries.
Import American almonds bad for own production in Spain
This deal is positive for Spain, especially because Spain is disadvantaged by the many almonds imported from America. The almonds from Spain are still top quality. Nevertheless, Spain is one of the European countries that imports many products from America, mainly because of the competitive prices.
As a result, many Spanish almonds are then exported abroad as prices within Spain stagnate or fall because the American almonds must be consumed before they go bad.
Also read: Where are the most beautiful almond blossoms in Spain?
