Malaga's Hass avocado campaign is now in its final stages. The harvest of all the fruit of this variety in the province is expected to be completed within a month, and prices at origin are currently reaching record levels of no less than 3 Euro per kilo; something very unusual at this point in the season. Last year, this price was reached when there were hardly any Hass avocados left.
Given this situation, many trading companies from Malaga have started importing fruit from other sources by sea. It is happening with mangoes and some early avocado varieties, like the Fuerte (thin skin). These shipments take no less than three weeks by sea to arrive, so the current stevedore conflict is affecting the province's tropical fruit sector in a remarkable way.
The conflict is causing some of the shipments to be redirected to other ports, thus extending the shipping time, and this is taking a toll on the quality of the fruit. The product is more mature than it should be on arrival, which directly affects the quality," assures the manager of Natural Tropic, Prudencio López.
This has been causing economic losses to companies since the problem started. According to López, imported fruit is usually given an advance payment before departure and the rest upon arrival, "so if a container arrives with the fruit in a far from ideal condition, it has consequences for the buyer," explains López. "If the goods are redirected to another port because the shipping company has not been able to unload them where it was planned, the costs also increase, because they have to be collected and transported," points out the manager of Natural Tropic.
This is also the picture painted by Óscar Ramírez. director of Tropica Spain, another Malaga-based company specialised in the marketing of mangoes and avocados, both local and imported, who stresses that the change of destination of a shipping container, which usually transports between 21 and 24 tonnes of fruit, ends up affecting the quality.
According to Ramírez, although the currently fixed minimum stevedore services seem to be working, this is not preventing further incidents with containers, although not as bad as those in mid-February. In any case, Ramírez insists that the damage caused by the stevedore conflict when the arrival of a shipment is delayed is rather considerable.
The director of Trópico Spain states that the current price paid for avocados of the Fuerte variety in Peru is higher than ever for this time of the harvesting period, between 2.5 and 2.7 dollars per kilo. According to Ramírez, the avocado market is quite strong in Europe, because there is still a lot of demand and this is causing prices at origin to increase, so the arrival of fruit whose quality has been affected by the stevedore conflict is negative for the sector.
The conflict is also taking a toll on Frunet's pineapple imports, according to its manager Antonio Lavao. "We are suffering delays, the diversion of goods to other destinations, with the inconveniences that this entails, as well as damages in the fruit, which must endure longer shipments than planned. This is a situation that, in one way or another, is affecting us all," states Lavao.
The tropical industry works mainly with the port of Algeciras. The import of fruit from other sources has become a key activity for the companies in the provice devoted to the sale of mangoes and avocados, which in some cases account for up to 70% of the annual turnover. The purchase of fruit from other origins takes place when the campaign in the province has ended and is intended to guarantee an unbroken supply to European customers. This activity has allowed the sector to work all year round and not only during the local campaign, keeping jobs and generating wealth. When it comes to avocados, for example, Europe imported more than 400,000 tonnes in 2016, while Malaga's production has barely reached 50,000 tonnes (around 70,000 in Andalusia).
Source: diariosur.es
