Stephan van Marrewijk works at the Spanish cooperative, Vicasol. He looks back on excellent Christmas sales of Spanish greenhouse vegetables. "Our main Christmas rush is a week, week and a half before Christmas. That means we can restock European supermarket shelves. Transport remains the biggest problem. Spanish transport companies threatened strikes. So, it was challenging again to get all the product to our customers," he says.
"The Spanish greenhouse vegetable season is going quite well. There's less production than last season. Several settings were lost. And now, with the colder weather, products are growing and ripening very slowly. But so far, demand hasn't been very high either. The market has, thus, been nicely balanced."
"There are some outliers this season, like eggplants and zucchini. These are higher priced than last season. That's due to lower production," continues Stephan. "This is likely to continue for some time. Temperatures here in southern Spain are expected to remain low until the end of January. We remain dependent on the weather and temperature. As things stand, no one's going to burn fossil fuel to heat the greenhouses here."
Vicasol's business premises in Almería, Spain.
"The tomato acreage has shrunk in Spain. Combined with the cold weather, this will lead to lower production in January. The new corona measures in the different countries will affect the market too. Especially for programs marketed outside the supermarket," Stephan concludes.
For more information:
Stephan van Marrewijk
Vicasol
04738, Puebla de Vicar, Almería, Spain
Tel: +34 (0) 950 553 200
Email: stephan@vicasol.com
Website: www.vicasol.es