Spanish garlic exports are being affected by the current logistics situation, where the outbreak of the war in Ukraine has further aggravated the problems caused by the collateral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are having serious problems in European ports to get the garlic loads out, which is heavily affecting this sector," stated Luis Fernando Rubio, director of the National Association of Producers and Marketers of Garlic. "We must bear in mind that Spain exports almost 60% of the garlic it produces."
"The Spanish transporters strike of the last few weeks has hurt us, bet we have been able to cope with it as best as we could. The situation in the ports is much more serious, many of them are over-saturated by goods that could not be shipped to Russia and are still being relocated. There are ports, such as the port of Valencia, that don't even allow containers for shipment. The war has worsened logistics that were already affected by the pandemic crisis," stated Luis Fernando Rubio.
"There is really no shortage of garlic on the market, but the complications for the goods to reach their destination are enormous," he said.
The ANPCA sent a letter to the European Commission informing it of the situation, which affects all European garlic. They also communicated this issue to the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism, in order to find a solution to this problem. The Spanish-French-Italian Joint Committee is scheduled to meet this week to discuss the situation and the upcoming garlic season.
The surface area in Spain will increase slightly, although it will decrease in Andalusia
The forecasts were accurate and this year the area sown with garlic will increase slightly compared to last year. It should be noted that the declaration of drought in the production areas of Andalusia has caused a shift towards Castilla-La Mancha. Thus, there's been a notable decrease in surface area in Andalusia and an increase in Castilla-La Mancha. In recent years the sowing of Spring garlic has been gaining ground over the sowing of purple garlic, a trend that stopped this year.