The stone fruit harvest in the Spanish provinces of Huelva and Seville will start 10 days later this year due to the influence of cold weather in January and the constant rains in March. With the exception of plums, good volumes and quality are expected.
"We've had a winter with sufficient hours of cold, even in the usually warmer coastal areas," says José Rodríguez Carrascal, Manager of SAT Síntesis. "In January, unlike last year, temperatures were consistently low, which delayed flowering by around 10 days and, later on, during most of March, bad weather with persistent rain has not allowed the fields to make up for this delay," he says.
"We hadn't seen so much rain in March for many years," says Carrascal. "Thanks to this, Andalusia now has enough water reserves for at least the next two years, following a long period of drought; however, it has also been detrimental for some crops, like berries or the oranges that were at a more advanced stage in terms of ripeness, such as the Lane Late, Navel Powel and Chislet varieties."
Nonetheless, the bad weather has not generally been detrimental to stone fruit. "Except for some occasional hail damage in some farms, for now everything points to a normal, quality production from Easter Monday, that is, April 21, until mid-June," says the Manager of the Seville-based company. "The exception will be plums, as the rains recorded during the pollination stage will cause a significant reduction of the volumes."
"At the moment, there's a limited supply of fruit from overseas in the markets, and this, together with the good weather in central and northern Europe, has been boosting the demand for summer fruit. There's also a lower citrus supply, so Spanish fruit will hit the European markets in a favorable commercial context," says Carrascal.
With a production amounting to around 8,000 tons, SAT Síntesis sells its fruit under the Primor brand to markets in the EU and Switzerland, with some exports also going to Asian countries.
For more information:
José Rodríguez Carrascal
SAT Síntesis
Ctra. A-436, Km.2
41318 Villaverde del Río. Seville, Spain
Tel.: +34 902702422
[email protected]
www.satsintesis.com
