"Disastrous stonefruit prices, grapes the only ray of light"

The Spanish stonefruit season started very early this year. "The retail wasn't ready for deal prices yet and only responded when the large volumes arrived. For a short time the prices were attractive, but the market completely collapsed in mid July," says Gert Bouman of the Spanish private producer Frutaria. The bad prices are occurring in peaches, nectarines and apricots. "But all the summer fruit is cheap. The plums are also in a dip and aren't getting out. The only fruit getting normal to high prices, are grapes due to a lack of good quality."

Normally the Spanish stonefruit season continues until the end of September/ beginning of October. Gert says the quality of the fruit is good to very good. Although Frutaria itself hardly exports to Russia, it is dealing with the indirect effects of the boycott. "The final blow for the market is that the Russian market has closed. Just like in the Netherlands Spain has exporters who normally export 80% of their volume to Russia and now they're stuck. We are specialised in the South American countries in the summer. Due to the pressure on the European market, a lot of test shipments are being sent to those markets. But these South American markets also have their limits. There are 150 million Brazilians, but 140 million of them just have enough money to buy rice and chicken. A good reason for us to focus on other faraway destinations."

According to Gert France is no longer competition for Spain, as this country hardly has any production any more. "Italy is a competitor on the European market and for small packaging. But I now expect more competition from traditional Russia suppliers (Spanish or Italian exporters) who now also want to sell their production on in Europe and these volumes - usually absorbed by Russia - will end up in the traditional markets which will cause a huge price pressure on an already tense market.

It is a constant race to product better quality fruit, better optical qualities and better yields, but to still remain competitive and survive. Italy hardly renovated plantations in the past, something that is commonplace in Spain. More is being harvested than planted in citrus and stonefruit. It is especially the old plantations that are being harvested. At our company, 30% of the fruit comes from trees that are three years old or younger. These differences in quality and appearance will eventually lead to price differences."

For more information:
Gert Bouman
Frutaria
T: (+34) 661 252 509(+34) 661 252 509
gbouman@frutaria.com