If you own some land and you are convinced that the soil, climate and location make it ideal for mango or avocado cultivation, you will need some patience, because it cannot be arranged immediately. Even if you have the money to buy the seedlings, it will not be possible. Prepare yourself, because you won't be able to turn your plot into a tropical farm in less than a year, in the best case scenario. The reason is that nurseries have long been left without seedlings for both varieties, and this entails having to wait for your turn in the queue.
Malaga's avocado campaign is proving to be much better than expected, with prices at origin exceeding 2 Euro per kilo during much of the season. In fact, they have reached up to 2.50 Euro.
Meanwhile, similarly good results have been registered by mangoes, the other major tropical crop in the province. In the 2014 campaign, production volumes exceeded 20 million kilos, which is three times more than in the previous year. Although the season started with a worrying drop in prices, demand for the fruit in European markets pushed prices to 1 Euro/kg for the Osteen variety and 2 Euro per kilo on average for the Kent.
The good results in terms of prices for both tropical fruits and the current financial crisis encouraged many landowners to convert their farms for the cultivation of mangos or avocados. This has resulted in the province's nurseries running out of seedlings.
Furthermore, there are farms that are renewing their plants under a more professional criteria, seeking to boost productivity with the same acreage by introducing intensive farming systems. This is a model that involves multiplying the number of seedlings per hectare at least by three. If 357 trees per hectare are planted in conventional farming, in intensive or high density farming the number of trees amounts to about a thousand.
Although not many growers are yet implementing such systems, this is also resulting in an increase in demand for seedlings.
The reality is that all nurseries have waiting lists of up to a year or more. This is the case of Viveros Brokaw España, based in Vélez and specialised in the production of avocado and mango seedlings, not only for Malaga, but also Europe and North Africa.
"The orders we are receiving now will not be covered until June 2016," says the manager of the nursery, Antonio Guirado. This nursery alone produces some 150,000 avocado seedlings and 100,000 mango seedlings per year.
Vivero Canarias is in a similar situation, as well as other companies specialised in the production of seedlings.
For the general secretary of Asaja Malaga, Benjamín Faulí, the lack of seedlings is the result of the long-time commitment from growers to these sectors. "The nurseries in the area have years of experience and enjoy a great international reputation, so they export part of their production to countries like Portugal, Morocco and Lebanon.
According to Domingo Medina, of the technical committee of the Spanish Association of Producers of Tropical Fruits, not only Malaga or Granada are committed to the tropical sector, as it is also attracting producers in Portugal, as well as other Spanish provinces, like Valencia and Cadiz.
Source: diariosur.es
