A few days ago, a rain and hail storm that brought up to 80 mm of rainfall in just 20 minutes hit the Spanish municipality of El Ejido, causing losses of varying extent on thousands of hectares. Around 4,500 hectares of crops are estimated to have been damaged by the hail, which destroyed around 60 hectares of greenhouses, although the supply to Europe has not been affected for now, at a time when the vegetable season is in full swing.
"At Agrupa2, we are already handling around 200,000 kilos a day, if we count both the production of our members and that of growers who are working with us," says David Figueredo. "Dutch cucumber is our main product and accounts for 60% of the volume we handle at the Agrupa2 auction. There is quite a lot of demand, so although volumes have increased, prices, although not very high, remain highly profitable for the growers. They stand at around 0.80-0.90 €/kilo, so they are also very competitive for consumers."
"As far as eggplant is concerned, in August and September there was no production available because the intense heat caused a lot of flowers to fall to the ground, so everything came to a complete standstill for three weeks."
"This year, a lot of people had started growing eggplant because it is a fairly stable crop, so when the temperatures improved, all the plants started to flower and the production accelerated all of a sudden, causing prices to drop to between 30 and 40 cents per kilo." In fact, in mid-October, Hortyfruta activated an extension of the standard for eggplant (to prevent the sale of second class products).
"It was a very difficult time, because, faced with this supply situation, the sector asked retail chains to organize promotions. But it took two weeks to plan them and make all the material and leaflets to announce the price reductions, and by that time, a lot of the leftover volume was no longer available, so the result was not as expected," he says. "However, the situation has fortunately been regulated and at the moment, eggplant costs between 1 and 1.08 €/kilo."
"Regarding zucchini, at the beginning of the season there was also a gap with very high prices, because fear of the New Delhi virus led many growers to sow later. At the moment, the situation is quite the opposite. Besides Almeria, the production is also arriving in Murcia, and Morocco has already started shipping zucchini to France, and this is being reflected in the price."
As far as peppers are concerned, despite being the product that has suffered the greatest losses due to the hail storms, the supply at this stage of the season seems normal. In fact, Spain has practically taken the helm of the European season for bell peppers.
"Countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic have already stopped producing and, as far as we know, the Netherlands is still producing, but more for local consumption, so the season is truly underway in Almeria," says an operator in the sector. "There's a high and smooth demand."
"Just a few weeks ago, supermarket chains changed many programs that previously included Lamuyo peppers in order to work with bell peppers, as production volumes had started to increase and prices were more competitive, causing the price of the Lamuyo to drop significantly. Lamuyo peppers require highly technical cultivation skills to get the right volumes and calibers, and their price reflects this. At one point, it came close to 3 euros per kilo, but now it has dropped to around 1.60 euros."
For more information:
Agrupa2 Hortofrutícola
Paraje la Cumbre, 128
04715 El Ejido, Almeria, Spain
Tel.: +34 950 50 24 50
[email protected]
https://hortoagrupa2.com