This season, a new reception and handling warehouse for avocados from the Malaga-based company Tropicsur is going to start operating in the Valencian Community. This will increase the work volume in this autonomous region where avocado cultivation has experienced a great expansion that is definitely expected to continue.
"The building work and the installation of equipment are already 90% complete and we estimate that we will be fully operational in early December," say Álvaro and Juan Miguel González, of Tropicsur.
"Our goal was to start the local Hass avocado season in the Valencian Community in our new Tropicsur Levante facilities in Pedreguer; however, due to the delay caused by the abundant rains and the fact that the avocado season has been generally ahead of schedule in Spain, in these first few days before the warehouse's inauguration we will be collecting the avocados in Alicante and taking them to our facilities in Malaga for sizing and handling, as we have been doing up until now to be able to serve our national and international clients from the very beginning of the season," they say.
"The Tropicsur Malaga facilities in the municipality of Alhaurín el Grande will also welcome part of the new Tropicsur team to provide them training in all processes so that the entire working system can later be transferred to the Valencian Community. The system that has allowed us to establish ourselves as a 100% specialist in the tropical sector in Europe," say the González brothers.
An early season
Everything points to the Spanish Hass avocado season being marked by a notable increase in the production volume, and that it will start earlier than in other years, given the dry matter levels of the fruit from the earliest areas. "Based on what we've seen in the different areas of Spain that we've visited, there is going to be more fruit this season. The exception to this, as we already know, is Malaga;" which has been hit by serious water shortages due to a severe drought in recent years.
Tropicsur says: "This campaign, there is a considerable fruit production in the entire Valencian Community, with good calibers that are also more homogeneous than in previous years. In recent months, we have often been hearing that there was going to be less avocado in Spain, but it's worth noting that this drop in the production will only affect some areas of Malaga." In fact, Spanish avocado will once again be a leading product in terms of both quality and quantity in all markets and large retailers.
"Unfortunately, drought in La Axarquía has had a great impact on the subtropical production, especially on avocados. The lack of water in previous months has led some farms to be left with no fruit at all, and some producers have even had to uproot their trees in recent years," they say.
"Nonetheless, looking at the situation from west to east of the Iberian Peninsula, Huelva is still obtaining fairly high yields. In Cadiz, where we have been working really nicely for decades, there is also a very good production coming, as will be the case in the Valencian Community. And we can't forget Portugal, where there will also be good crops with good-sized fruit," say Álvaro and Juan Miguel González.
"In fact, compared to last year, this time we are expecting to have 30% more production from Cadiz, Huelva and Portugal, and in the Valencian Community, which will also have fruit from its newest plantations, growth will go well above this 30%," they say.
For more information:
Tropicsur Malaga
Camino de Coin, urb. Salmerón s/n
29120 Alhaurín el Grande, Málaga, Spain
Tel.: +34 951 509 400
[email protected]
www.tropicsur.es
Tropicsur Levante
Pol. Ind. les Galgues, Av. les Indústries, 4bis
03750 Pedreguer, Alicante, Spain
Tel.: +34 951509400
[email protected]