The current Spanish garlic season is approaching its end after some difficult times, to which we must add the potential loss of competitiveness in a market as important as Brazil. The price increase of Chinese garlic, however, is a favorable development ahead of the coming season.
"The abundant rainfall in May 2018 strongly affected the quality of the purple Spring garlic, and to a lesser extent, that of white Spring garlic in Castile-La Mancha. As a result of these quality issues, prices fell considerably, which became a hurdle for the marketing of Purple garlic, which is generally between 30 and 40 cents more expensive than Spring garlic. Because of this situation, we were forced to reduce the prices of Purple garlic, which is a better quality product with much higher production costs than those of Spring garlic," says Rafael Polo, commercial director of the cooperative Coopaman.
According to Polo, the Spanish garlic sector fears the loss of the Brazilian market, following the announcement of a 19% tariff increase for European garlic.
"The Brazilian market is very important for us. Unlike for other companies in the sector, Brazil is not a mere escape route in the case of product oversupply in Europe, but a market that we supply with stable volumes. We work with regular customers in this country and hope to expand our programs with supermarket chains. At the moment, it is not clear whether the tariff increase will eventually be applied or not. We are still exporting to Brazil, as we have always done, but if is applied, we could easily be left out of this market, as it would be impossible to compete with Chinese garlic."
At the moment, the quick price increase of Chinese garlic is good news for Spanish garlic. "This means that the stocks of Chinese garlic are decreasing. We hope that the storage cells are left empty when the season is over, and that we can start the next season without stocks from the previous year."
"With our integration into Unica Group, our presence in the European supermarkets will grow"
After about a year of negotiations, Coopaman has signed an integration agreement with the cooperative Unica Group, based in Almería. The company will officially become part of this cooperative from 1 June. Unica Group sells around 400,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables every year. Thanks to Coopaman, about 20,000 tons of garlic will be added to that each season.
"Until now, Unica only had garlic for a few months of the year, but thanks to our integration, they will now be able to sell garlic all year round, with constant volumes," says Rafael Polo. While the majority of Unica Group's customers work with large European supermarket chains, Coopaman, which exports more than 80% of its production, is present in more than forty countries. "This integration should contribute to the expansion of Unica's markets outside the EU, and it will become much easier for us to increase our presence in European supermarkets. We believe that cooperation with supermarkets will lead to better and more stable sales for our members."
This year, Coopaman is opening a plant for the production of essential garlic oil. The company is becoming a pioneer with this product in Europe. The company will also supply fresh cut products from the same facilities, such as peeled garlic cloves in innovative packaging, black garlic, garlic paste etc.
For more information:
Rafael Polo
Coopaman
C/ General Borrero, s/n
16660 Las Pedroñeras
Cuenca, Spain.
M: + 34 639373567
T: +34 967160536
nacional@coopaman.com
www.coopaman.com