"Spanish paraguayos will replace peaches in the future"

The Spanish stone fruit season is facing the necessary challenges. "A rainy period in May caused a large production in Murcia to be lost. The season in Lleida has been slowed, but there is more product available from Badajoz," says Luis Ochoa, who is responsible for the European stone fruit import within Olympic Fruit. "What is striking is that all Dutch supermarkets have started offering stone fruit. The changeable weather in Central and Northern Europe isn't causing a large demand for stone fruit yet and is pressuring the prices."

"At the moment there are a lot of paraguayos on the market, there are enough peaches and the supply of nectarines is limited. I expect a lot of peaches and nectarines on the market in two weeks and less paraguayos of which there is a large production at the moment," continues Luis. The nectarines vary in quality and aren't as red as they should be, there are also some broken stones due to the successive warm and cold period," continues the importer. Competition from the Italian stone fruit is hardly there now. "There are regions there where it's 5 to 10°C. No one fancies the Italian stone fruit."

Paraguayos
In Spain the paraguayo cultivation has increased strongly in recent years. Luis expects the paraguayos to as good as replace the peach cultivation in the future. "Children like the paraguayos more, they are sweeter, better in colour and have more flesh to eat than the peaches. There are also a lot more opportunities to present them more attractively for the consumer."

Other items that there is more demand for are red plums and apricots. "This year Spain has produced more apricots and you are seeing increasing amounts of Spanish apricots on the market, at the expense of the French apricots. The red blush ones in particular are popular. The Spanish apricots used to go straight to Russia. Now more remain on the Dutch market and the consumer sees more items and this stimulates the consumption."

Germany is the largest export market for stone fruit for Olympic Fruit, followed by the Baltic States and the Scandinavion countries. Organic is still in development for stone fruit according to Luis. How the market will develop further, is largely dependent on the weather, he says. "Both for the productions and the consumption. The weather depends the amount of stonefruit consumption."

For more information:
Luis Ochoa
Olympic Fruit
Handelscentrum ZHZ 40A
2991 LD Barendrecht
T: +31 - (0)180 646200
l.ochoa@olympicfruit.com
www.olympicfruit.com