A few weeks ago, the world was shocked by the images that showed the shortage of vegetable supplies in UK supermarkets. Fortunately, according to Juan Carlos Perez, co-director of the Coexphal-UAL Chair, "little by little, normality has returned. Prices have fallen since the eighth week of the year. The sharp drop in temperatures this past week may affect the market soon, but it will be somewhat conjectural. Now we are already producing the new spring harvests, and melons and watermelons will soon begin. There will be no problems from Almeria," he said.
"Who are the UK's main suppliers?" he wondered as he analyzed the source of the problem. "Almeria is very representative in terms of pepper, zucchini, eggplant, and spring crop products. However, Almeria is no longer the UK's main tomato supplier as it only accounts for 10% of imports, which are led by the Netherlands (35%) and Morocco (35%). The landscape has completely changed in recent years."
"Thus, apart from taking into account the cold waves of recent weeks, we must also look at other producer markets that have stopped fulfilling their commitments," he stressed. "We arrived at this situation because several causes converged in a generic way at the same time. There's no doubt that the weather was the main issue. Our products are very sensitive to these changes. Weather caused supply and demand issues both in Almeria and in North Africa. Another issue is that Moroccan producers didn't export all of their products because of the rising inflation in the country. They kept part of it in the country to try to contain the increase in food prices," Perez stated.
"The price at which the vegetable was being paid in origin did not represent its real value"
In Europe, prices also experienced a notable increase as the supply from the north of the continent came to an end, and there was a sharp drop in temperatures. "In week five, people were looking for supply, and there wasn't any. This caused the market to overheat at the source. The price at which the vegetable was being paid in origin did not represent its real value," stated Juan Carlos Perez.
Prices have fallen slightly, but they still remain high. However, one mustn't forget other variables that will be decisive for this campaign, such as the high costs of inputs. "We are depending on spring to save the campaign."
Source: diariodealmeria.es