|
Article Excerpt
Abstract This article analyzes the current situation of the tomato export sector of Almeria, the principal exporting province of Spain. First, a critical view is presented relating to the internal organization of this sector; the most important problem observed is the marketing system which is atomized, heterogeneous and significantly difficult for raising funds from the individual partners in order to begin innovative projects. Second, to establish whether this area is losing market share, the sector is compared to the other principal tomato suppliers of the European Union (the Netherlands, Morocco, and other areas of Spain). The analysis shows Almeria has defended its market share in the most recent years. Finally, the most influential variables in the commercial process are analyzed by a tomato export model that shows there are substitution effects of the Almerian tomato for products from others origins, mostly the Netherlands.
Keywords Trade * Vegetables * Competitiveness * Cooperatives
JEL L10 * O50 * Q00 * R10
Introduction
The Internal Situation
During the last 10 years, Almeria's tomato exports have increased more than the other Spanish producing zones. In 1995, Almeria represented 17% of the total Spanish tomato exports, second to Las Palmas' 27% of the total Spanish tomato exports, second to Las Palmas' 27% of the market. In 2004, that share increased to 38% of total tomato exports ([euro]280 million), making Almeria the largest and most important tomato exporting province in Spain. Spanish tomato exports were a Canary Islands initiative until the 1940s when winter crops were introduced into Alicante and Murcia by Canary Island companies (Cortes Perez 1989). Because of competition from other non-European Union countries, like Morocco, the Almerian farmer could have to abandon the existing marketing system, which is appropriate for the European Union (EU) region.
In Almeria, there is an important division between the two distribution systems (De Pablo et al. 2004a): auctions, normally called limited societies, and destination commercializing companies, the most important exporters, mainly Agrarian Transformation Societies (SAT) and Cooperatives (SCA). The SAT and SCA are an expression of the social economic concept, where companies do not have a direct profitability interest. Their main objective is to respond to the needs of their individual partners (members). Each system represents about 50% of the total of the local production-export of fruit and vegetables.
The auctions systems are currently trying to change their way of commercialization by selling part of their production directly abroad, most probably caused by the unstoppable concentration of retailers. Groups like Carrefour, Metro, Ahold, Aldi and Rewe control the retail sales to the consumer in EU both indirectly, by controlling the fruit and vegetable offerings, and directly, by imposing their rules (standards) of production and packaging. (1)
Furthermore, the social economic companies' main problems are: (1) the difficulties in specialization, (2) significant difficulties for raising funds from the individual partners in order to begin innovative projects, such as investments in infrastructure for trading products from other countries or marketing investments, and (3) a high risk for the social economic companies, linked to the specialization of fixed products, specifically: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, zucchinis, melons, lettuce, watermelons and beans. This situation gets worse with certain companies specialization in intensive cultivation. In a hypothetic crisis of the national and international tomato markets, 92% of the social economic companies would be affected, reducing their revenues almost 30% (De Pablo and Perez Mesa 2004a).
The companies that commercialize fruits and vegetables in destination look like a homogeneous group but, in fact, they are actually quite different because (a) they can be controlled by a wide social base (only SCAs) or a small group of partners (some SCAs and SATs), (b) there are family companies and larger cooperatives that use an auction as a commercialization system, and (c) big size SATs use production facilities and land owned by a limited number of partners. The presence of these different enterprises favors the actual situation of atomization. Specifically, the tomato commercializing sector is characterized by heterogeneous companies with different sizes. For example, there are big cooperatives that work like auctions and limited societies (auctions) and other social economic companies that sell directly abroad. In general, there seems to be limited ability for any initiatives to concentrate the sector to face the new challenges caused by a bigger offer and a smaller group of buyers, now just a limited number of multinational groups.
Almeria in the International Context
For Almeria, the most important tomato buyers are (in order of volume) France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Table 1). The EU absorbs the 95% of the fruit and vegetable production from Almeria. In these countries, there is an important competition with products coming from other origins, mainly from the Netherlands and Belgium, as re-exporters of tomatoes from Almeria, and Morocco, as an export producer. (2)
Table 1 Exports to EU and imports of EU in average metric tons for 2003-2004 Exports (t) Imports (t) France Belgium Netherlands Germany Italy Almeria 99,996 16,135 46,998 94,267 17,317 Rest of Spain 58,498 5,9514 89,728...
|
