The late onion harvest campaign, an important activity in the Vega de Antequera, which has about 500 hectares planted (almost 800 in the province), has not escaped the impact of the heat waves that have hit the fields of Malaga since May. In fact, it seems that the high temperatures will have a direct impact on the crop yields. According to preliminary estimates, the late onion production, whose harvest kicked off on 21 August and will not end until the first half of October, will in all probability be 20% lower than in normal circumstances. Juan Antonio Romero, manager of the leading onion producing and marketing cooperative in Malaga, Horticultores El Torcal, says the loss in production volumes is being offset by the producers with higher prices. It happened already in the early onion campaign, which took place last June, and it is happening again with the late one.
"The heat has caused crop yields per hectare to drop and calibres are also smaller. Both campaigns have still been marked by a really good quality and very reasonable prices that have helped to cover production costs," said Romero .
As regards the late onion or Reca, which has more layers and is therefore suitable for modern mechanised harvesting methods, prices are ranging between 0.95 Euro kilos for the larger calibres and 0.30 Euro per kilo for medium or small sizes. "This is not always the case. There are campaigns when the medium sizes cost more than the large ones. What is happening this season is that there's a greater scarcity of larger calibre onions, hence the higher price," explains Romero.
According to the manager of Horticultores El Torcal, the cooperative is planning to export the larger calibres (mainly to Germany and the UK), while the medium sizes will be sold in the domestic market and Portugal.
The province's onion production in 2014 amounted to 30 million kilos. This campaign, El Torcal expects its own harvest to reach between 18 and 20 million kilos.
Source: diariosur.es
