Spain: Generalized drop of vegetables prices in Almeria
Vegetables prices dropped on average 0.20 Euro per kilo in the last week, according to Francisco Vargas, president of Asaja-Almeria. "Despite that fact that it was expected in products like the Dutch cucumber and tomato, due to a rise in the offer from the Netherlands and United Kingdom", said Manuel Arévalo, commercial director for Nature Choice, according to representatives of Asaja and Coag, there's no explanation for the market behaviour with the remaining products. They all agree that the raise in production from their competitors in this season, mainly in Europe, caused a loss in value at origin in Almeria. Vargas explained that "even if we had a strong winter, it was short, making it possible to advance on vegetable production in Central Europe".
Distribution chains "are closing their programs for the majority of their horticultural products with the Dutch and German producers, mainly the discount ones", affirms the provincial president of Asaja-Almería. Although, Emilio Villegas, commercial director for Unica Group, believes that this is "not a generalized practice because, even if they closed their programs, it's still kept for vegetables". Villegas sees this drop in prices as "a normal effect of a raise in the offered production".
Despite that, Andrés Góngora, provincial secretary for Coag-Almeria, considers that "production is not so high in Almeria that prices drop so much". Even if he agrees that there's more competition after Central Europe starts producing, he believes that "there's shouldn't be such a drop in value since there's demand everyday for Almeria and not product rests at origin". Due to that, he points to the distribution chains as the "ones to blame" for the drop in prices with their commercial strategies.
For Andrés Góngora, prices registered in the first months of this year "weren't that high". Despite talking about good prices, "they only cover production costs".
Source: Ideal