The answer is not the inflation we suffer in Spain, and the watermelon is just the tip of an iceberg, although it is a better metaphor to say that the watermelon is a grain of sand in the desert, the one ahead of us.
Pulling the string of watermelon high in Germany grown in Spain leads to the root of a problem that experts can’t stop screaming without reaching anyone’s ears.
“We run out of water in Spain so that few fill their pockets and the Germans have cheap watermelons,” says Fernando Maestre, an expert on arid lands, one of the most cited scientists in the world, a researcher at the University of Alicante. He, and those like him who know the evolution of irrigation, the inflammation of crops, the pain caused by depleted aquifers… and who project the future, do not stop demanding that urgent measures be taken to stop the catastrophe.
Interview with Fernando Mestre. I don’t intend to go to Mars
A few days ago, Fernando Maestre posted a simple message on Twitter showing the price of watermelons in Leizpig, with this message:
How is it possible that a watermelon grown in Spain (probably in Murcia or Almería) is cheaper in Leipzig than in Alicante? pic.twitter.com/aPfls5jLBa
– Fernando T. Maestre (@ftmaestre) July 12, 2022
Since then, many media outlets have made room for his message, but few places have explained what is behind it.
“Politicians fill their mouths talking about the billions of euros generated by exports of fruit and vegetables, however, the poorest cities in Spain, according to INE income data, are the cities in the areas with large greenhouses, the poorest is Nijar, in Almería, and some of them in Huelva, who live off irrigation. Something is failing in this system”, explains Fernando Maestre.
Spaniards don’t get rich from selling agricultural products in bulk
The cities where watermelons grow, the same ones that reach Germany and Alicante, are among the poorest in Spain
The Spanish fruit and vegetable sector produces 3.5 million tons a year and generates more than 2,200 million euros in cities like Níjar, Vícar, Adra and El Ejido, whose population is at the bottom of the country in terms of wealth, around 8,000 euros. per annum. year per inhabitant.
Thus, the cities where watermelons grow, the same ones that reach Germany and Alicante, are among the poorest in Spain.
How can this absurdity occur?
Fernando Maestre writes a blog together with two other researchers, specialists in climate and desertification, in Research and Science. On the blog they published a documented text in which they explain what is happening and why. In this blog, Jaime Martínez-Valderrama published a documented text in which they explain what is happening and why.
This is the step-by-step summary of the cycle that the price of watermelons has taken us through, explained in the Research and Science article:
The paradox of fueling Europe’s high demand for fruit and vegetables
In Germany, Denmark and other Central European countries, there is a growing concern to maintain a diet rich in fruits and vegetables throughout the year, including winter. This means that non-winter products need to be mass produced. Greenhouses are the solution.
A tomato grown in winter, in a semi-arid area with scarce resources and traveling 3,000 kilometers to reach the supermarket, cannot be organic (in the broadest sense of the word, regardless of the phytochemicals used).
Eating yogurt with raspberries all year round, and this is just one example among many, is possible because raspberries are grown in a Mediterranean environment at the expense of wetlands that have less and less water and that, in addition, generate a trail of waste. plastics that are not recycled.
Big supermarket chains drive prices down
The macro supermarket chains, which are not Spanish, detect that a great demand for watermelon is coming, to continue with the example. Then, a perverse mechanism is triggered, known as “production mat“: How to get a steady supply of watermelons all summer long at such a low price? Order many at once and pay in advance, putting pressure on producers to make the price very, very, very low.
All of this happens long before summer. And the farmers organize themselves to put into production whatever greenhouses are needed (it is convenient to produce something else because non-compliance with the agreement entails serious sanctions) and draw water from wherever it is.
Evolution of the surface of greenhouses in Almería (Source: Cajamar) on the cover of the monograph on desertification published in Ecosystems magazine, which shows the change in land use between 1956 and 2020
To obtain water in Almería, Cartagena and Murcia, they often turn to illegal wells, illegal desalination plants and pressure on management.
The wages of agricultural workers are ridiculous, which allows them to produce at very low prices.
Salaries are derisory, in many cases illegal and in undignified and exploitative conditions. With this, it is possible for the German consumer to have his watermelon for a price that sometimes ends up being cheaper than in the supermarket that is two hundred meters from the greenhouse.
The big distributor or supermarket squeezes the farmer’s bag to get the price demanded by its customers.
So that everyone can be reassured, they put labels that remind them that what they are eating is very ecological (after all, it is legally like that because it has a drip irrigation system and biological control!), but no one puts it on the label of the watermelon bought by German consumers. conscientious people who come from farmland where aquifers are hopelessly depleting.
In the process, if any watermelons are left over, they are thrown away. It is common for this to happen, and prices drop so much that it is not even worth harvesting.
On the “treadmill” only those who have a lot of financial muscle win, as happens in the stock market. And those who have financial strength don’t care that the wells dry up or that the ecosystem is degraded.