The artichoke campaign is currently in full swing in the Spanish region of Vega Baja, where it is one of the most cultivated products. Cold weather in the area has left its mark. This last month, the volumes of vegetables suitable for fresh marketing have been reduced, although this shortage is not being reflected in the prices.
"This is the first year of the 18 since I started working at SAT Olé! in which we experience a cold month, with frosts that have caused the loss of a lot of first class products, but with prices failing to go up," says Pepe Ortuño, from the Alicante-based company. "Although the explanation for this has to do with what happened in December."
"When the road transport strike was called, a lot more production was sent to the markets to ensure that there would be no shortages if shipments stopped. That production was difficult to clear from the market because consumption generally drops during the Christmas period. In the meantime, the fields continued to produce even greater volumes than expected due to the high temperatures at the time. As a result, some wholesalers started stockpiling low-priced products, which created a bottleneck until basically the end of January."
Pepe Ortuño.
"Due to this anomalous situation, prices have not been able to rise and we have not been able to make up for the product shortage caused by the frosts. And this is all happening at a time when production costs have increased by 25% compared to last year."
And this year, among other factors, the unprecedented rise in production costs has resulted in Spanish producers demonstrating once again, with the latest demonstration held just a week ago in Murcia. With these protests, they seek to make it clear to the whole of society how severe their situation is, demanding solutions for a sector as essential as it is vulnerable right now," says Pepe.
The first artichoke exporters in Spain
Artichokes are a key product for SAT Olé! 80% of its production, which amounts to between 6,000 and 6,500 tons per year, is sold in the international market, which makes it the largest artichoke exporting company in Spain.
"In Europe, we see demand not only for our artichokes, but also for the rest of the products we work with: broccoli and cauliflower, Lamuyo bell pepper, California bell pepper and fennel. Taking them all into account, our production volume totals some 18,000 tons."
"As for artichokes, we have diversified our growing areas, and this has allowed us to have a longer production period, from October to June. Eighty percent of the production is concentrated in the Vega Baja, and the rest is grown in Granada and Albacete, which are the places where we start and finish the campaigns."
"In addition to the white artichoke, we grow two originally French varieties: the Violet artichoke from Provence and the Calico artichoke, oriented to the French market, although their consumption is increasingly strong in Europe, where re-exporting countries such as the Netherlands, or also the United Kingdom, have increased their purchase volumes quite a lot," says Pepe.
However, despite this trend in the consumption of these varieties, artichoke consumption in general has been gradually declining over the last decades. "Twenty years ago, we were handling 10,000 tons of artichokes and we were the largest exporters, and now we are still there with only 6,500 tons," says Pepe Ortuño. "This decline in consumption has been occurring as more traditional recipes have been abandoned. But that is why we are working to promote this vegetable, which is very healthy, very tasty and has always been part of our gastronomy. The goal is to bring it closer to younger consumers and promote its properties and how to prepare it."
In fact, both the Vega Baja Artichoke Association and the Spanish Artichoke Association are carrying out promotions in physical stores, restaurants and social networks to promote the consumption of this vegetable native to the Mediterranean basin and make it popular again," says Pepe Ortuño.
For more information:
Pepe Ortuño
SAT Olé!
Calle Mayor, 140
San Bartolomé, 03314 Alicante, Spain
Tel.: +34 965 367 000
[email protected]
https://oleveg.com
