From the beginning of the flowering season, in March, until mid-June, the weather has been rainy and cold in Extremadura, with hail also in some producing areas, which has delayed the start of the peach, nectarine, apricot and plum harvests by around 15 days, depending on the varieties. In the case of the Jerte Valley cherries, the harvest has been delayed by almost 30 days.
"We've had a very difficult start due to the delay of the harvests and a lower quality in the earlier varieties, mostly due to the impact of the weather, especially on peaches and cherries," explains Miguel Ángel Gómez, manager of AFRUEX, the Association of Fruit Growers of Extremadura.
The problems in the flowering have taken a great toll on the plum production, which is about 50% smaller than usual for this time of the year. Also, the long delay of the first cherries has led to overlaps with other producing areas.
While Spain has fallen behind in general, other countries further north in Europe have experienced the opposite situation. "The climate has been very hot and dry in northern Europe this year while we had it cold." Although the volumes are not great, the stone fruit productions from central and northern Europe arrived earlier and this entails more competition for us," says Miguel Ángel Gómez.
"Now, although the harvests are still delayed, at least the quality is back to the ideal level. Prices are higher than last year, but we will have to see at the end of the campaign if they compensate for the lack of kilos and the losses caused by quality problems in the early varieties."
According to the manager of AFRUEX, the sharp decline in plum volumes will have a negative impact on the exports to some of the new overseas markets, such as China. "We are going to try to maintain all the markets that we have, in spite of everything, although the shipments to countries like China will probably be smaller this year."