Although Rien Paans of Verfru Europe has been living and working in Spain for about 20 years, the weather conditions can also be called exceptional for him. "At Christmas, we walked around here in short sleeves at temperatures around 20ºC. But from the second week of January, temperatures here in the Tarragona area dropped to 8-10 degrees during the day with many nights below zero. This did not do the growth any favours and this is true for the whole of Spain and Portugal."
"Until last week the temperatures were way too low, we are talking about five to six weeks consecutively. I have not experienced such a long period with this kind of weather here and certainly not that it applied to the whole of Spain," says Rien, who together with his son Arthur focuses on supplying Spanish outdoor vegetables to customers in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Green cabbage and broccoli, from the harvest planning of the second week of January
"So now this means we have a big shortage of product. The cauliflower now being harvested bit by bit is from the early January harvest planning. This month alone we are already 300,000 units behind here in Tarragona. The pointed cabbage and green cabbage are also hardly growing and we are also seeing big backlogs in these products. The problem is that if the weather turns, there can also be big losses due to the cabbage blowing," says Rien.
Pointed cabbage
"All in all, a bizarre situation, which actually applies to the whole of Spain. There are also major shortages in Portugal, especially in cauliflower and broccoli due to the prolonged cold."
For more information:
Rien en Arthur Paans 
Verfru Europe
Mob Rien: +34 669221480
Mob Arthur: +34 639546103
rien@verfrueurope.com
arthur@verfrueurope.com