Sales in the potato market are currently marked by the low supply and high prices, which have led to a drop in consumption. In the south of Spain, the acreage for this year's spring campaign has been reduced, although Murcia is handling good productions and calibers.
"This latest season has not been easy, because we have been working in a market that has been under a lot of stress because of the lower supply, and in which price levels have been high," says Juan Manuel Coello, director of Patatas Meléndez.
"Our company has obtained a lower yield in the 2022/2023 season than in previous campaigns, and the calibers have been smaller than usual. However, despite the fact that we are running low on stock, we have still managed to fulfill the planned programs," he says.
"It is important to mention that we have had a lot of uncertainty this campaign as a result of the generalized increase in costs, which has led us to update our contracts for energy, inputs, fertilizers, etc. And this has had repercussions on the processing and packaging side," he says.
For the 2023/2024 campaign, Patatas Meléndez's goal is to obtain a production similar to that of 2022; a year which they closed with almost 200,000 tons of potatoes marketed by the entire group. "There are still many months ahead and factors such as the weather, the price levels or consumption could lead to changes in this figure," warns the director.
"The fact is that consumption has been falling for months, and this decline is a consequence of the price of the product, which is currently very high. So far this year, the trend is the same as in the previous period, although in March we did notice a slight improvement."
Forecasts for the spring's new potato season
"We have started the 2023-2024 campaign with what we call second harvest potatoes from southern Spain. This harvest takes place in the regions of Andalusia and Murcia during the months of January and February, and it is followed by the spring-summer season, which kicks off in Murcia in mid-April. In this one, we expect both yields and calibers to be good. In mid-May it will start in Andalusia, where yields are expected to be affected by the frosts," says Juan Manuel Coello.
"A reduction of the acreage is expected in all regions and it remains to be seen how this will affect the yields. In the case of Andalusia, this year's spring-summer season will start around the second half of May, slightly later than usual. This is a consequence of the weather, which has affected the acreage," says Juan Manuel Coello.
"Despite all this, at Patatas Meléndez we have our own structure in southern Spain called Agroquality, which works in line with our Agricultural Plan and with the firm commitment we have to provide growers with greater stability and to standardize all our contracts. Thanks to Agroquality, we have managed to obtain a large volume of early new potatoes from southern Spain, but our case is practically an exception and is not the trend in the sector," says the company director. "As for the region of Murcia, so far all our deadlines and forecasts have been met."
"We run the most automated plant in the sector at European level"
"Regarding the new factory we recently inaugurated, we can now say that we run the most automated plant in the sector at European level. There are naturally more factories with integrated automation, but they have not yet reached the point where we are at, and this applies to the entire process, from start to finish," says the company director.
"All the technological advances we have incorporated are focused on maximizing quality, sustainability, efficiency and the safety of our workers, which is a priority for us. Among the most outstanding innovations, we can mention robotization, or the possibility of automating the potato selection process by means of Artificial Vision and Machine Learning. Automatic traceability systems monitor product traceability from start to finish; optical sorters classify the potatoes by size, shape and quality in a single process; and transport through AGV is beneficial for the logistics and is making remote management possible."
"It is true that there is a need for labor in the field, although this is a separate issue from the factory. We logically seek to automate processes for which we have difficulties finding professionals to carry them out. In our sector, we mostly need workers at harvest time, and that is when we introduce machinery when we have the opportunity," says Juan Manuel Coello.
For more information:
Adriana Benito
Patatas Meléndez
T: +34 983 812 920
[email protected]
www.patatasmelendez.com
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