Despite being very delayed, the arrival of the cold has had a very positive effect on the broccoli and cauliflower production of southeast Spain, where the main autumn and winter broccoli and cauliflower producing areas in Europe are located. Availability has dropped and it’s expected to be limited in the coming weeks, in which it seems demand will continue to rise.
“In the last 3 months the temperatures have been noticeably warmer than usual by those dates, which accelerated the plants’ growth and thus advanced the harvest,” stated Sebastian Aguilar, commercial director of the Murcian company Campo de Lorca, best known for its Cricket brand. “Weekly production was somewhat higher than usual, but there wasn’t an oversupply, so farmers didn't have to sell their crops quickly and our chambers were not overstocked.”
It’s worth noting that the area of broccoli and cauliflower decreased when compared to last year, especially the production that wasn’t programmed. However, Cricket has maintained its production areas. “In addition, the high temperatures accompanied by some specific rainfall have caused botrytis and Alternaria issues. This means there were greater losses in the field and fewer products destined for the fresh market,” stated Sebastian Aguilar.
Temperatures have finally dropped and the development of the crops has slowed down. “Since the development of the crops slowed down and we had harvest part of the production earlier than usual, we now find ourselves with a certain gap in the markets,” stated Cricket's Chief Commercial Officer. We expect there will be less broccoli and cauliflower than usual in the coming weeks. We had a lot of competition from Italy in the last 3 or 4 weeks because of its strong upturn in production, which it sold at lower prices than ours. However, they are no longer in the markets and European import programs are moving to Spain. Demand has picked up thanks to the cold and is good. It's been a rough six months. We hope that what's left of winter is really winter.”
Despite the mismatches in production caused by high temperatures, the average price has been better than in the previous season, Sebastian stated. “Producers and marketers have been forced to pass on the increased costs. All the links in the chain had done it and now we had to do it. We have no choice if we wanted to continue producing. However, it remains to be seen whether this price increase will be enough to make it profitable.”
The lack of water continues to severely punish broccoli and cauliflower producers, as well as many other products. It is -together with the increase in costs- one of the greatest challenges that producers will face in this and in the upcoming campaigns. “Many farmers have seen their production shrink because of a lack of water resources. This is a very worrying issue. We recently participated in a big protest in front of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge in Madrid, after they proposed reducing water for irrigation from the Tagus-Segura transfer. We would have less water and would be forced to desalinate it at exorbitant prices. This could lead to terrible socio-economic problems,” stated Sebastian Aguilar.
For more information:
Sebastián Aguilar
Cricket
+34 968465960
[email protected]
www.campodelorca.com