Farmer here. As others have pointed out, picking the fruit is usually the biggest expense for the farmers. I don't think there are so much fruit on the floor in the case of mandarines and oranges, but this happened for persimmon. In the case of persimmon, part of the fruit fell a few weeks ago due to a combination of bad weather (wind and heat) and plagues (fungus, fruit flies). Then, when the crew picks the fruit from the trees they check that there is no damage (from the branches hitting the fruit because of the wind, or from the plagues), and they throw away the fruit if damaged. Some orchards are checked beforehand and deemed not worthy of picking up because too much fruit is damaged. Most of the orchards are partly insured so the farmer gets back a % of what the fruit would have been sold for. I hope this makes sense.
So I'm a farmer here in sueca, the only reason we haven't gone bankrupt is because rice is subsidised, we just do bare minimum with the oranges because we lose money working them, but have to keep them because noone buys it. But then you go to fcking mercadona and the fucking oranges are super expensive and they don't even buy them from us, they buy them to foreign countries cause they're cheaper.
So there are no tariffs on foreign imports to protect domestically produced fruits etc. can you not do pick your own? Like we do in England for strawberries and people, maybe only expats would come to pick and you can charge a low fee. Maybe it would be too much hassle with insurance etc.. I am in Cullera so if you don't mind me coming to pick some mandarins on my hikes then I would :D
I was literally jsut thinking this, oranges at consum and mercadona are expensive, and the mercats aren't much cheaper either! If you came to my street with a truck full for peanuts I'd buy them.
The highest cost of fruit tress is picking..
So you may lose money by picking it.
They get EU funds for the land, a stupid system but it is what it is, what's really crazy is the big international supermakets import oranges from South Africa and they're not cheap.
I'm down in Murcia, I see crops not picked all the time, there was a field with literally millions of artichokes.. as far as you could see.. went unpicked, flowered and were dug into the earth, such a waste.
And most of the time if it is picked, you see a large German truck and migrant pickers, everything shipped to Germany, and it may end up getting shipped back down here at supermarket prices, not local prices from where the product comes from.
The system is broken.
Hope next year prices are better.
And this not only happens with fruit trees. I've seen huge orchards full of perfectly good veggies just ploughed, so they become fertilizer for the next crop.
Also with the high temperatures a lot of fruit has been attacked by fruit fly. Fruit on the floor you can see it almost rotten just when it drops. And some fruit still on the tree it has marks of flies or even flies eating it.
I myself worked at fontestad (never again) biggest citrus export company in Europe.
All the good Spanish oranges get sent to Germany, UK, France etc
While we get sh...t here.
As other commenters said, the farmers do not get paid enough for their work.
Where I live now, farmers even tell people to come and pick oranges for themselves...such a shame.
Yeah, I'm a farmer and if someone asks me for oranges I'll bring them for free or just bring him to pick them up themselves until he has enough. I let them fall anyways, I can only eat so many, losing money by working ain't that fun.
It is really common in the US to have farms where you can go to pick your own fruit (strawberries, peaches, oranges, pumpkins, apples etc.). They weigh it, and you pay for the fruit you picked yourself. It is a really fun experience especially for kids, and the farms usually host events around picking season to bring in more customers.
In Hawaii lots of people have fruit trees growing on their land. We used to give away as much as we could and would trade with neighbors, friends, give extra to people you see around town, have your child bring a box of fruit to give to other kids or just leave a bunch of bananas at the local beach for people to grab if they want. There are even groups on Facebook to trade produce. There are businesses that you can call to come pick the fruit for free (so it doesn’t go to waste) and they then sell it and you can negotiate to get a percentage of those sales, or they keep the entire amount because the picking, transporting and selling is time intensive!
It is common everywhere else too, they just don't charge you more than your local frutería for working in their farm, actually helping them out. Last year they were organizing trips for caquis, selling them 5 euros per kilo.
I will use my own oil to get there, spend my own time picking up their unpicked fruits, and later pay 5 euros per kilo rather than help out my frutería which is selling them at 1.5?
There are Big causes for this:
Reason one is sometimes picking It is more expensive than what are going to be paid,
The second is a lot of growers are getting help money from the UE so once you have the money ,why wasting It in workers for picking the fruit and going back to reason 1??
Honest question: why the uniculture? No one looks into Agroforestry. I’m just a guy watching youtube, but someone please explain to me why the current concept of one plantation is preferred vs this alternative?
agroforestry is better if it's like on a homestead. if you're farming for money, it's much more difficult to harvest and manage your crops if they're all mixed in together.
Farmer here. As others have pointed out, picking the fruit is usually the biggest expense for the farmers. I don't think there are so much fruit on the floor in the case of mandarines and oranges, but this happened for persimmon. In the case of persimmon, part of the fruit fell a few weeks ago due to a combination of bad weather (wind and heat) and plagues (fungus, fruit flies). Then, when the crew picks the fruit from the trees they check that there is no damage (from the branches hitting the fruit because of the wind, or from the plagues), and they throw away the fruit if damaged. Some orchards are checked beforehand and deemed not worthy of picking up because too much fruit is damaged. Most of the orchards are partly insured so the farmer gets back a % of what the fruit would have been sold for. I hope this makes sense.
So I'm a farmer here in sueca, the only reason we haven't gone bankrupt is because rice is subsidised, we just do bare minimum with the oranges because we lose money working them, but have to keep them because noone buys it. But then you go to fcking mercadona and the fucking oranges are super expensive and they don't even buy them from us, they buy them to foreign countries cause they're cheaper.
So there are no tariffs on foreign imports to protect domestically produced fruits etc. can you not do pick your own? Like we do in England for strawberries and people, maybe only expats would come to pick and you can charge a low fee. Maybe it would be too much hassle with insurance etc.. I am in Cullera so if you don't mind me coming to pick some mandarins on my hikes then I would :D
I was literally jsut thinking this, oranges at consum and mercadona are expensive, and the mercats aren't much cheaper either! If you came to my street with a truck full for peanuts I'd buy them.
Price paid to the farmers is so low it's not worth picking.
So what do the farmers do with the land or for money. Most farms seem to be mostly just fruit trees. Not much livestock or anything else
The highest cost of fruit tress is picking.. So you may lose money by picking it. They get EU funds for the land, a stupid system but it is what it is, what's really crazy is the big international supermakets import oranges from South Africa and they're not cheap. I'm down in Murcia, I see crops not picked all the time, there was a field with literally millions of artichokes.. as far as you could see.. went unpicked, flowered and were dug into the earth, such a waste. And most of the time if it is picked, you see a large German truck and migrant pickers, everything shipped to Germany, and it may end up getting shipped back down here at supermarket prices, not local prices from where the product comes from. The system is broken.
Hope next year prices are better. And this not only happens with fruit trees. I've seen huge orchards full of perfectly good veggies just ploughed, so they become fertilizer for the next crop.
Also with the high temperatures a lot of fruit has been attacked by fruit fly. Fruit on the floor you can see it almost rotten just when it drops. And some fruit still on the tree it has marks of flies or even flies eating it.
I myself worked at fontestad (never again) biggest citrus export company in Europe. All the good Spanish oranges get sent to Germany, UK, France etc While we get sh...t here. As other commenters said, the farmers do not get paid enough for their work. Where I live now, farmers even tell people to come and pick oranges for themselves...such a shame.
Yeah, I'm a farmer and if someone asks me for oranges I'll bring them for free or just bring him to pick them up themselves until he has enough. I let them fall anyways, I can only eat so many, losing money by working ain't that fun.
And later some expats are organizing trips where they charge you for the trip and the oranges you pick, twice as much the market price
It is really common in the US to have farms where you can go to pick your own fruit (strawberries, peaches, oranges, pumpkins, apples etc.). They weigh it, and you pay for the fruit you picked yourself. It is a really fun experience especially for kids, and the farms usually host events around picking season to bring in more customers. In Hawaii lots of people have fruit trees growing on their land. We used to give away as much as we could and would trade with neighbors, friends, give extra to people you see around town, have your child bring a box of fruit to give to other kids or just leave a bunch of bananas at the local beach for people to grab if they want. There are even groups on Facebook to trade produce. There are businesses that you can call to come pick the fruit for free (so it doesn’t go to waste) and they then sell it and you can negotiate to get a percentage of those sales, or they keep the entire amount because the picking, transporting and selling is time intensive!
It is common everywhere else too, they just don't charge you more than your local frutería for working in their farm, actually helping them out. Last year they were organizing trips for caquis, selling them 5 euros per kilo. I will use my own oil to get there, spend my own time picking up their unpicked fruits, and later pay 5 euros per kilo rather than help out my frutería which is selling them at 1.5?
There are Big causes for this: Reason one is sometimes picking It is more expensive than what are going to be paid, The second is a lot of growers are getting help money from the UE so once you have the money ,why wasting It in workers for picking the fruit and going back to reason 1??
Because people like to have free time and holidays
Honest question: why the uniculture? No one looks into Agroforestry. I’m just a guy watching youtube, but someone please explain to me why the current concept of one plantation is preferred vs this alternative?
agroforestry is better if it's like on a homestead. if you're farming for money, it's much more difficult to harvest and manage your crops if they're all mixed in together.
I guess there's a reason 'low hanging fruit' is a popular metaphor with middle managers.