"On March 23, we started with the first harvest of the 2024 stone fruit campaign," says José Velasco, CEO of the Murcian company El Ciruelo. "This year, we've set a record for the earliest harvest in history."
"The harvest has started earlier compared to last year, mainly because we had a good amount of cold hours at the beginning of winter, a lot more than in the previous year, followed by an early rise in temperatures, days with plenty of sunlight and an almost complete lack of cloudy days and rain since the start of the year," says Velasco.
April and May are the months in which the company handles the largest volumes of stone fruit, before starting with the domestic table grape campaign in June and combining its two main activities in summer.
"Although it's still a bit early to talk about the situation of apricots or plums, as of today, we haven't had any adverse weather conditions that could prevent a good harvest," says the CEO of El Ciruelo. "Based on the fruit's progress in the earliest areas, we expect a very early campaign, with good sizes, good sugar levels and, ultimately, good quality."
"We are the first to start with the stone fruit season in Spain, which is a tremendous responsibility, as we have to make sure the quality standards of these products meet our consumers' expectations," says Velasco.
"Other stone fruit producing regions in Spain, such as Catalonia, Aragon or Extremadura, are delivering significant volumes to all of Europe. Unlike them, we are specialized in early stone fruit, so we play a complementary role to those areas, which are unable to advance their production schedules as much," says José Velasco. "Thus, we are helping extend and increase Spain's presence in supermarket shelves across Europe."
In recent years, El Ciruelo has focused on varietal renewal and on adapting to new, earlier production areas, such as coastal areas, where the weather conditions are more favorable, thereby achieving improvements in terms of sizes, sugar content and taste quality. "We start the season in April with Paraguayo peaches, peaches and nectarines with a balanced flavor, and with some excellent quality flat peaches in May, something unthinkable years ago," says Velasco.
Most of El Ciruelo's early stone fruit productions are sold in Europe and the United Kingdom. "The early fruit arrives to a very open market in Europe and the United Kingdom, as we avoid long trips and protocols that are not beneficial for the fruit," says the CEO.
According to José Velasco, water scarcity is a threat not only to stone fruit production, but to all agricultural activities. "Therefore, it is very important to raise awareness and seek solutions that will help us not only to use this resource efficiently, but also to avoid any practices that may cause its shortage in the long term."
"Controlling and reducing the rise in labor and input costs remains one of our main challenges. These have been trending upwards in recent years. Thus, we are strongly focused on the development and research of new technologies in automation and data analysis. This is essential if we want our company to stay competitive internationally and to have a long-term future," says José Velasco.
For more information:
El Ciruelo S.L.
Autovía Alhama
Cartagena, Km 2,5
30840, Murcia, Spain
T: +34 968 630 645
comunicacion@elciruelo.com