Auctions in the Axarquia, Spain, are already working with the avocados of the 2024/25 season. "This year, despite the drought in the Axarquia, the Torrox area has not suffered too much of an impact either in terms of production or calibers. Farms in Vélez-Málaga and other towns in the area are fully dependent on the La Viñuela reservoir, so many orchards have been abandoned there since they stopped having water for irrigation. However, here in Torrox we have groundwater from the springs in the Frigiliana and Torrox mountains, and our own wells have allowed us to keep our crops irrigated," says Alejandro Navas, from the Navas Carrillo S.L. auction, which has been active since the 70s.
"Big traders in the province buy avocados directly from the fields of Malaga, and in recent years, also from many other areas of Spain. Meanwhile, many small growers in the Axarquia area with smaller productions, and who don't usually work with those traders, bring us their fruit in boxes to sell through the daily auctions. Our job is to get the best possible prices for their fruit, regardless of sizes," says Alejandro.
"In recent years, many warehouses in Velez-Malaga that are short of fruit or certain sizes are coming to buy avocados from our auction, and due to the drop in production in Malaga, many national markets are also buying avocados directly from us in boxes instead of buying the sorted and packaged product from the warehouses, which account for a large share of Spanish sales and are strongly focused on exports," says Alejandro.
"This has given us the strength to keep prices at good levels for our producers. As far as avocados are concerned, the setting up of new plantations in areas such as Huelva, Cadiz, Valencia, and Portugal has helped keep the warehouses busy. In fact, many of these have set up their own facilities in these places to manage all this new production. However, prices have fallen across the board. The most affected has been the Malaga area where, due to the lack of water, many avocado farms have stopped producing and have even had to be uprooted."
"More and more growers are choosing to replace avocados with mangoes, or to expand their farms"
Mangoes are proving to be better suited for this situation thanks to their lower water requirements, and prices have been good this season.
"In terms of production, this year there has been plenty of fruit loss in the case of the Osteen, and there has also been a large volume of baby mango. However, while we saw no changes in our turnover in 2023 with half the number of kilos compared to the previous year, in 2024 our auction's turnover and volume have doubled compared to 2023," says Alejandro.
"Osteen prices have remained very stable, with producers receiving around 1.70-1.80 €/kg and up to 2 €/kg during the season, and rising to 2.20-2.40 €/kg by the end of the campaign, in early November," he says.
"The Osteen production is very remarkable, but also highly concentrated within a short period of time, and prices are influenced by the volumes available. This season, at the end of October, when the Osteen supply fell, we saw an upturn in the Keitt, which has ended the season at 2.60 €/kg in our auction. We have observed this trend in the last few years and many growers who have also noticed it are expanding their Keitt mango plantations to try obtaining such prices at the end of the season."
Alejandro says that "given the greater resistance of mangoes to drought and hard water, as well as the prices they are fetching in recent seasons, and the fact that they are much more exclusive than avocados because so far they have only been grown in the Axarquia and on the Costa Tropical of Granada, more and more producers are choosing to plant mangoes where they previously had avocados, or to expand their farms, to the point that some nurseries are noticing a lack of mango plants in the face of this greater demand. In fact, one of the largest tropical nurseries in Malaga has already announced that it will only be able to meet new orders for mango plants from 2026 onwards because it has already sold the entire 2025 production before the year had even started."
For more information:
Navas Carrillo S.L.
C/ Peñoncillo N.º 1, 29793 Torrox - Costa, Malaga. Spain
Tel.: +34 952 53 01 07
[email protected]
https://www.navascarrillo.com