While still in its early stages, the Spanish stone fruit season is already underway, with the harvest kicking off in different areas. At the moment and until mid-June, the Region of Murcia will be the leading producer.
"We started our stone fruit season at the beginning of last week with the first boxes of nectarines and very good prospects," says David Franco, Sales Director of the Murcian company Grupo Paloma. "Clients are very keen to start selling Spanish stone fruit, and the good weather in almost all of Europe is encouraging the shift towards summer fruit consumption."
© Grupo Paloma
According to David Franco, "although the harvest has generally started around 7 days late, the weather has been stable, with no frosts or heat spikes, so conditions have been ideal for good fruit development. Brix levels are slightly higher than usual, and the good coloring and greater consistency are allowing us to start distributing the fruit in every destination we work with."
Grupo Paloma expects to be harvesting and selling fruit from May 10 until June 8-10, as their plantations are located very close to the sea, in Águilas.
"In the last five years, we have converted around 70% of the nectarine varieties," says David Franco. "This year, significant quantities of these new varieties are already coming into production, and they are bringing a huge improvement in terms of quality compared to the old varieties, with attributes that were previously not to be found until later in the campaign. The quality criteria in variety breeding have changed, and earliness is no longer the most important aspect," he says.
"Between 2027 and 2028, we hope to offer a complete range of these varieties. The goal is to deliver consistent quality from start to finish, thus allowing clients to get the same fruit from April 10 to June 20, without having to be concerned about varieties," says the Sales Director of Grupo Paloma.
Along these lines, Grupo Paloma is carrying out 3 to 4-year trial programs with platerina and peach varieties to be able to include these species in its portfolio. "We are very interested in planting and marketing platerinas, based on the good feedback we are receiving from our clients. We believe we could see interesting growth in the coming years thanks to the genetic improvements being achieved," says David Franco.
For more information:
David Franco
Grupo Paloma
Tel.: +34 968590001
[email protected]
www.gpaloma.com
