The nectarine campaign has already started in the Spanish province of Lleida. It is doing so significantly in advance, in a campaign in which the region expects to recover its productive potential.
"Everything is happening very early. The harvest is starting 10-15 days ahead compared to last year, when we were already a week ahead of previous years," says Rodrigo Masip, of the Lleida-based company Conjuntfruit.
"The quality of the fruit will be good, as the temperatures have so far been ideal. However, those weather conditions will also cause the sizes to be somewhat smaller than usual. This will depend largely on the varieties," he says.
"Murcia has had quite a few problems with water and is now harvesting all the stone fruit it has. In fact, it will finish in the next few days. In Extremadura, some areas are going to have between 20 and 30% less production. That is why the market has its sights set on Lleida at this time, when there is consumption in Europe, because the weather is summery. Meanwhile, producers in Italy have suffered losses due to floods, and those in France have also suffered some losses due to adverse weather conditions," says Rodrigo Masip.
Conjuntfruit is specialized in organic fruit production. "We are the only plant in Lleida working exclusively with organic stone fruit. We export a lot to Germany, and this year we are going to increase our production and we have started working with Lidl and Edeka."
Thanks to the fact that there has been no frost, the cooperative will go from half a million kilos of stone fruit to almost 2 million this year. Conjuntfruit has five growers with organic farms, one from Monzón, two from Tarragona and another two from the Segriá area. "Working in different geographical areas makes us more resilient to inclement weather, including hail or drought," says Rodrigo. "Also, this increase has been key to our being able to jump into large-scale distribution this year."
"We expect to obtain around one million kilos of organic nectarines, half a million kilos of organic peaches, around 200 tons of flat peaches and 100 tons of organic apricots," he says.
"Not everything is measured by prices; also by value"
Conjuntfruit already has the Naturland and Bio Suisse certifications, and has also taken a step towards biodynamic agriculture. "This year we are going to have our first audit to start our talks with Demeter. This shows a paradox linked to macro data: Spain is the second or third largest producer of organic food in the world, and the first in Europe; however, when it comes to the consumption of organic and Demeter products, we are at the bottom of the ranking in Europe," says Rodrigo.
"We continue trying to sell in the domestic market; in fact, we work with small operators and local supermarkets here in Lleida that have organic lines, but in the end, 95% of our fruit goes to Europe."
By 2030, the goal is for 25% of agricultural land in the EU to be organic, although consumption is not expanding at the same rate as the production area, at least in Spain. "If only 5% of our local and low-carbon footprint fruit remains here, and it is more appreciated in markets that are two days away by truck, there is clearly something we are not doing well."
"It is a complex issue that cannot be blamed solely on prices or supermarket dominance. There are also idiosyncratic, knowledge or awareness issues that need to be taken into account and should be addressed. The consumer plays a key role," says Rodrigo Masip.
For more information:
Conjuntfruit
Ctra. Vall d´Aran, Km. 6
25123 Torrefarrera, Lleida, Spain
Tel.: +34 973 590 180
[email protected]
conjuntfruit.es