Abstract:

Over the past twenty years there appears in Europe an increase in the demand of by-products and a blockage of the fresh consumer market, decisively contributing to the existence of excess supply in some varieties, when there is overproduction in a season, and the oversupply of the market is increased, provoking a prices drop. The cost of raw material in Spain is high and the industry is basically supplied from collecting raw material in a marginal form, under adverse climatical situations of overproduction, or through subsidies. After a first reference to the juice industry in the world, the Spanish reality is set out in the subjects concerning the structural characteristics, varietal composition, EEC policy and production costs. The major conclusion is the need for setting up the development of the industry on basis different from the current, with plannings in the supply of raw material, withdrawing from the fresh supply the inferior qualities, a measure that would be viable through interprofessional agreements, or by cooperative system. Although the world market of concentrated juices is very competitive in favour of the countries that dominate it, the Spanish citriculture should not have renounced to the extension of the industry in view of the blockage of the fresh market, and the increase of juice consumed. With the purpose of optimizing the economical result of the fresh market shipments, an optimization model of the supply is presented, through a function of global demand set out in weeks, which makes it possible to quantify the amounts and qualities that must be withdrawn from the market to be destined for the processing industry. Two criteria have been considered for this: maintenance of price levels, and of weekly incomes. The characteristics of the functions utilized have allowed to establish substitutions between amounts and quality levels, maintaining unchanged the prices or the incomes.