The "fraud" of Spanish nougats: most are made with American almonds and honey from China

It is increasingly difficult for consumers to distinguish the origin of the raw materials with which the food they buy in any store or supermarket is made.

It is a widespread criticism in recent times.

Neither the approval of various laws in this regard, not only in Spain but also in the European Union, has resolved this unanimous complaint on the part of Spanish agricultural producers, who

What didn't seem like

Robbable is that this derivative also included traditional Christmas products.

And let's not mention the star product, nougats, whose leading brands, the ones that sell the most, have a marked national seal.

On the contrary, "speculation and opacity come home for Christmas," denounce those affected.

"For consumers it is practically impossible to know the origin of the raw materials contained in Christmas sweets", confirms Javier Fatás, member of the COAG Executive Committee.

This difficulty leads to the fact that "we can find nougats that apparently may seem 100% Spanish and that in fact have used Chinese honey and almonds from the United States in their preparation," he denounces.

The regulations only require indicating the origin of the main ingredient when mentioning the country of origin of the food, something that rarely happens.

Namely, "

.

This agrarian organization, and it is not the only one, has been demanding for a long time from the Government and the Autonomous Communities a compulsory labeling of the origin of all the raw materials that make up nougat and other typical Christmas products.

Also in the European Parliament, where there is an open debate, but there is still a final resolution in this regard, with countries against it such as Germany.

At the foot of the field, Francisco Ponce confirms it,

almond producer in the region of Calatayud (Aragon), where he and his father own 33 hectares (8 irrigated) that produce around 20 tons per year: "The American almond does not look at quality, it is one more product of newspaper but the Spanish industry is interested in moving a lot of volume, even if it is worse, while most European countries are betting on the opposite, but the Spanish nougat industries go easy".

So the national consumer who buys a supposedly Spanish nougat everywhere, made here, on the contrary turns out to be taking, without being aware, a product that has the raw material, in this case the almond, of American origin.

"This is getting more and more, ships from the US do not stop arriving, but since the industry is neither scared nor pressured to do otherwise by the administrations, in this case the Ministry of Consumption, well They keep doing it," he criticizes.

As if that were not enough, while the large nougat companies assure that in this campaign

-as can be seen in the purchase lineal-, but this increase is not having an impact on the prices of almond growers.

A) Yes,

less than the previous campaign, according to the main markets, for the common variety and between 2 and 5% less if all the main varieties are analyzed.

For example, while prices for the common variety fluctuated between €3.85 and €4.05/kg in 2021, now prices are between €3.5 and €3.8/kg.

"Industries do make a profit because they buy cheap and sell high and we have lost a lot of profitability, especially with the rise in production costs," said this farmer.

Spain imported in the 2021/22 campaign close to 120,000 tons of this product,

This figure is much higher than the maximum production that has been reached in our country (95,000 tons in 2020), mainly from the US, and which serve to supply our processing industry, as well as to be re-exported to other countries, mainly from the EU.

For the current season, according to forecasts from the Ministry of Agriculture, almond production is estimated at 325,943 tons, 23% less than last year.

"The frosts in April and the severe droughts that the countryside has suffered have been the keys to this sharp decline," confirms Francisco Ponce.

Spain had become the second largest producer of almonds in the world in recent years, only behind the US.

HONEY, NEITHER

A similar situation occurs with honey, in this case from China, without any type of control.

, where he has 500 beehives.

"First, the one from there is much cheaper, but on top of that, the regulations allow the word China to disappear on the label," he complains to emphasize that two decades ago, through pollen, it could be verified through a sample in laboratories , and for 20 euros, the origin of the product but now minifilters that prevent this analysis are allowed.

Added to this this campaign is that the prices offered for Spanish honey this autumn are between 6 and 8% lower than the prices paid in the previous campaign, although practically all of the honey that has been produced is up to date today in the warehouses of beekeepers and cooperatives since there are no commercial operations.

This market paralysis is due to the fact that the

Honey production in Spain is around 30 million tons, although with a clear downward trend in recent years, mainly due to bad weather conditions ("climate change", underlines the Aragonese beekeeper. This year there are even fears up to 70% of the total volume will be lost.

Our country has 36,475 farms (REGA data, July 2022), of which around 18% are professionals (those farms that have more than 150 hives).

Regarding imports, the accumulated volume in 2021 reached 31,627 tons while exports reached 28,441 tons.

With all these data, COAG demands from the large nougat industries "a firm commitment to the national product and a fair remuneration to Spanish farmers and beekeepers".

The Government and the Autonomous Communities are required to modify the regulations on the labeling of Christmas sweets in which they are obliged to detail the country of origin of all raw materials.

Farmers would win and, above all, the consumer would not feel cheated.

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