Spain took advantage of Europe's broccoli shortages

The summer broccoli season lasts from June to early October, and although with fewer volumes compared to the autumn-winter campaign, it is basically intended to ensure continuous supply of the domestic market. Some small volumes are usually also exported to countries such as Italy, France and Portugal. From September, the domestic production starts to increase as the campaign in other European countries comes to an end with the arrival of autumn. In this way, by mid-October, Spain has good volumes to supply both the local market and the rest of Europe.

Nevertheless, during this year's summer season, the Spanish broccoli sector has encountered an unusually large gap in much of Europe, where production was affected by prolonged adverse weather, unlike in Spain, where it has been fairly stable.

"Around 8 July we noticed that the weather was taking its toll on Europe's volume and quality of production because of the increase in demand from those countries, and which remained stable for nearly eight weeks," explains David Franco, Sales Director of Campo de Lorca, Murcia, one of Spain's leading broccoli producers.

"Up to 10 September, we have been exporting to central and northern Europe, although we could not keep up with demand in the summer because we had small volumes planned. In any case, we strongly rely on the weather, which allowed us to produce about 25% more than planned, and it is this percentage that has been exported," continues David, who says that there have been weeks of severe shortages in Europe, which has led to high average prices for producers.

"Now the weather is quite stable in central and northern Europe, with mild temperatures and no storms, so we don't expect to start exporting significant volumes again until 15 October," he assures.

Under the Cricket brand, Campo de Lorca sells the Naxos variety in summer; a broccoli with morphology, appearance and properties almost equal to those of the Parthenon, which it supplies in winter, ensuring year-round availability. "It's easy to plan campaigns with the Naxos due to its stability in terms of both harvest period and production volumes, with average temperatures in summer of about 35 ºC. Both Naxos and Parthenon, from the seed company Sakata, are currently the dominating varieties within Spain's broccoli sector."