“This year, the sales of Spanish tomatoes went fairly well in relation to production. There were hardly any surpluses, although shortages occurred regularly. Unfortunately, this has now changed. There are a lot of tomatoes, including baby plum and various colours in cherries, at the moment. Sales are very mediocre,” says Ellen van Kester of Horticola Guadalfeo, which combines the production of speciality tomatoes with napa cabbage.
Ellen van Kester
“Generally, the tendency is that flavour is paid more attention to. That’s also why we’re constantly conducting trials to supply customers looking for more flavour. For next season, we have a new variety baby plum tomato that is currently well-received by customers we did trials with,” Ellen says.
“We also have more blue Marazul tomatoes available at the moment. For these, we’re seeing more and more interest from Germany, the UK and Austria. The market for Marazul is also growing quickly in Spain,” Ellen explains. The Marazul is a new variety that was improved through natural cross-fertilisation. The tomato’s blue colour is due to the high concentration of anthocyanins, which contain important nutrients for health.
At the same time, the production of napa cabbage is declining more and more for Horticola Guadalfeo. “This is caused in part by the mediocre results of recent years. It’s a difficult product to grow, and besides, napa cabbage is sensitive to germination and bacteria. Generally, the market for napa cabbage was good this year, mostly because it wasn’t widely available. Our season has now ended,” Ellen concludes.
For more information:
Ellen van Kester
Horticola Guadalfeo
Ctra. Celulosa Km.199
18600 Motril, Spain
Tel: 958 60 23 04
Fax: 958 82 49 26
ellen@hguadalfeo.com
www.hguadalfeo.com