Lack of good calibres hampers start of Spanish pomegranate campaign

The Spanish pomegranate campaign is starting with the harvest of early varieties such as the Smith and Acco in the east of the country. The harvest is starting late in Valencia, with lower yields per hectare and smaller sizes.

"We started harvesting the first Smith and Acco pomegranates with a delay of between 10 and 12 days. The delay has been largely due to the influence of low temperatures, with even some frosts at the time of the flowering. It seems that the production will also be lower in the rest of Spain," says Ernesto Machancoses, of the Valencian company Frutas Inma.

Furthermore, during the fruit setting period, there were heat waves that, together with the impact of drought, have caused the calibres to be smaller than usual. "There is a predominance of calibre 14 and a lot of 16, when markets usually demand calibre 10 and can accept some 12. Large chains will have to adjust their calibre requirements for this campaign, otherwise, there will be very little pomegranate on the shelves," explains the producer and marketer. Consumers usually demand large pomegranates, since they are preferable for the production of fresh juices.

Spanish pomegranates arrive at a time of low prices, coinciding with the end of the campaign in Peru. "We are overlapping with the end of the Peruvian campaign. The off-season has been catastrophic as a result of the tremendous pressure from the supply, which has caused prices to fall to levels that we did not think could be reached. There are still some Wonderful pomegranates from Peru in calibres 8 and 10 kept in cold storage, and the market is demanding fresh pomegranates with those sizes and with these low prices, so we are talking about a very complicated start. If our campaign had not been delayed, the problem would have been greater."

However, Ernesto Machancoses believes that the market will run out of off-season pomegranates next week, and the markets will then have to adapt to what is available in terms of sizes. "We cannot go to the fields and harvest only 20% of the production," he says. "We have a difficult campaign ahead. We'll need to wait and see how the pomegranates from Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Tunisia influence the market. Egypt is becoming a tough competitor both in the citrus and in pomegranate markets, since its currency has been devalued."

About ten years ago, practically 100% of the pomegranates planted in the Region of Valencia were of the Mollar variety and derivatives, which have a sweet aril with a tender texture, but which are not very appealing to the eye.

"Producers have been switching to more visually attractive varieties, with a more intense red colour, since the profitability of the traditional Mollar has been reduced in recent years due to the pressure from these varieties, which yield more reasonable prices," explains the producer.

The demand for pomegranates continues to grow every year, both because of the fruit's health benefits and because of the trend towards the consumption of freshly-squeezed juices. Moreover, ethnic consumption is having a growing impact in European countries. "Northern Europeans are generally unaware of pomegranates and consider them an exotic product, while immigrants from the Mediterranean and North African countries are traditionally familiar with this fruit." Frutas Inma ships its pomegranates mainly to Scandinavian countries and Germany.

The Valencian company is kicking off the pomegranate campaign with the launch of a new fruit sorting line featuring the Global Scan technology, of Maf Roda, which sorts fruits based on their quality in terms of colour, weight and diameter. "This new sorting line makes 8 photos per fruit and determines whether they are Extra, First or Second class."