Spain: Despite low supply, stone fruit prices remain stable due to low demand

Despite the lower production of stone fruit in Aragon and Lleida, caused by the large quantities of fruit lost after a bad fruit set in spring and the hail that affected several production areas again yesterday in Aragon (this time between Calatayud and Paracuellos de Jiloca), prices have remained stable because there has been a low demand for stone fruit in its destinations markets.

"We started the first harvest of apricot, peach, nectarines, and flat peaches more than one week ago and production has been lower than last season, something that will last until we finish the campaign in mid-October," said Pascual Ramón, commercial director of Summer Fruits. 

According to the exporter, sales of stone fruit are low and there are few orders, which can be closely related to the instability of the weather in Europe. "Prices should be higher as there isn't much fruit available in the market," he said.

"We have just started and the production we have so far can't be exported over long distances, so we've allocate it mainly to the European market. Within a few weeks, when quality permits it, we'll start shipments to the Middle East and Asia", Ramon Pascual said. 

"We are enrolled in the program to export stone fruit to the Chinese market. Two weeks ago Chinese inspectors visited our fields and warehouses to verify that we comply with the requirements established by the protocol. We are waiting for them to give us the go-ahead to make our first shipments this year", said Ramon Pascual.

"I think China is a very interesting market for Spanish stone fruit exports because, despite being supplied by the US, they are interested in having more sources to assure quality."

"We still have two weeks of marketing of cherries. We had a lot of quality problems because of excess in rain and hail when there was a good market for cherries. Market conditions were not the same when the situation improved in the field, as there was too much competition from other sources, such as Turkey. The Turkish cherries have flooded the European and Asian markets since Russia's veto."