Although no official figures have yet been announced, it appears that there will be a marked decrease in Spain's garlic acreage affecting all varieties, mainly in Andalusia and Castile-La Mancha, the main producing regions.
The negative results of the last two seasons, caused by oversupply in the markets, have discouraged many growers, as at many points of the campaign prices have not even covered production costs.
The sector, therefore, hopes for last year's situation not to repeat, as many growers started harvesting when there were still large stocks from the previous season and were forced to sell the garlic at any price, taking a huge toll on them early in the campaign.
In 2013, Spain exported about 70,000 tonnes of garlic at an average price at origin of € 1.60 per kilo, while in 2014 approximately 100,000 tonnes were shipped, although at a price between 20 and 30 cents below that of the previous year.
While shipments to distant destinations, such as Australia and South Africa, have declined, Spanish garlic is recovering market share in Brazil, where it had already exported about 7,000 tonnes of Spring garlic by the end of 2014, partly because of the low prices, even lower than that of Chinese produce, which has been affected by Brazil's high tariffs.
It is worth noting that Spain has also imported less garlic in 2014, about 3,000 tonnes, 50% of which came from China and the rest from Argentina, France and Chile.