“Large volumes of good-quality stone fruit expected this season”

The Spanish stone fruit harvest has started, and the first volumes will be available at Van Dijk Foods Belgium as of today. “We received various pallets of peaches and nectarines from Huelva last weekend. These have been grown under plastic. The season will start more than a week later than last year, but expectations are very good,” says Henk Vlaeminck from Van Dijk Foods Belgium.

Henk continues: “The great thing is that the flowering stage went better. The trees had plenty of rest this winter, and the quality of the fruit will be better because of this. They had their thoughts about that last year, because they didn’t have a proper winter in Spain then. People are now expecting a good quality for the entire season. Brix levels are high for the start of the season. Peaches are at 9 at the moment.” The peaches and nectarines are large. “The producers know that large fruit is very popular early in the season. They have thinned selectively, so that there’s less fruit per tree. Each tree will produce about 35 kilograms of fruit. Because of this, prices are at a high level. In any case, prices will be at 5.50 and 6 euro per kilogram during the first week.”

“The weather circumstances during the flowering stage were good, and large volumes are expected throughout the season. It’s still too early to predict everything, of course. This week, the Valeria region has had hail, but that is the region for later varieties. The weather is good in Huelva at the moment, so reports will be good for now.”