The start of the stone fruit campaign in Badajoz is making the sector optimistic, following the price crises of recent years. The plum harvest, the most important for the area, has been advanced by between a week and ten days, with considerably smaller volumes compared to the previous season, as well as higher prices. The demand and prices of peaches and nectarines are also higher than last year, especially those of the latter.
“We've had two very good weeks of peach and nectarine sales. The supply is smaller and has fallen below the demand. Moreover, the good weather in much of Europe and the new consumer trends sparked by the lockdown measures have been working in our favor. Prices are currently good for all links in the value chain, starting with the producer," says José Aurelio García, manager of Explum.
The production volume of the Early Queen plum, the flagship early variety, has been reduced by around 50%. "The demand and prices are already higher than last year and we hope that this trend will continue for the rest of the season. We'll have to wait and see how the market reacts to the arrival of more production of popular varieties like the Black Splendor, with larger calibers and a higher demand in more markets. At the moment, the variety is already being harvested in Seville and in less than two weeks it will also be harvested in Badajoz. By then, we expect the Early Queen to be already sold out, since, unlike in other years, each day is coming to an end with empty cold rooms.”
The frosts in Italy have caused the overall stone fruit production to fall. “There they mostly produce Angeleno plums, so we will possibly face less competition this year. The yield of yellow plums, which will start to be harvested between July and August, is also lower, but we don't know how the market will react. In any case, Poland will also have a lower supply of red and yellow plums. We are in a new situation and we don't know for sure yet how the demand will behave in the middle of summer. There is still uncertainty, but the high consumption of fruit due to health concerns in the current times gives us reasons to be optimistic," says José Aurelio.
If there is one thing that plum exporters are concerned about this year is the possible loss of the Brazilian market, which last year absorbed about 1,000 containers. "In order to stop the Lobesia botrana, a pest that affects crops such as vines, the Brazilian authorities are now requiring us to treat our production with methyl bromide, a plant protection product whose use was banned in 2005. We have yet to find a solution to this, which could lead to the loss of an important market for the sector, especially for black plums,” says the manager of Explum.
For more information:
José Aurelio García
Explum SC
T: +34 924446338
M: +34 615289854
jagarcia@explumsc.com
www.explumsc.com