"Producers have to know what they're going to produce and for whom"

With the exception of occasional episodes of heavy precipitation, Seville's climatic conditions during winter have been very favorable and contributed to a good flowering and, therefore, to achieving good production volumes. 

"We expect a normal harvest in Seville, just like our competitors in Murcia," said Sebastien Adnot, of the commercial department of Primor. "The volumes will be higher than in the previous year but we won't have an over-production; this is a return to normality, as the previous campaign was marked by adverse weather conditions (lack of cold, frost, and heavy rainfall in May), and we had to throw away a lot of fruit," he said.

Primor will start harvesting their first peaches at the end of week 15, the week after they will begin harvesting nectarines, and at the end of this month they will start marketing the first flat peaches. "Despite being specialists in nectarines, strictly because of varietal issues, we will start with peaches first"

The Sevillian company focuses its campaign between April and May, where they compete mainly with Murcia. They also compete with Morocco, albeit to a lesser extent. Seville has been losing ground in stone fruit in the face of increasing competition, something that Sebastien thinks happens because producers lack focus: "Producers have to know what they're going to produce and for whom," he said. "To differentiate ourselves, we have strongly thinned the trees so that we achieve large calibers."

The Sevillian company continues its process of varietal renewal by restructuring its R & D in stone fruit, thanks to its alliance with the French company Escande, which specializes in peaches and Low Shilling nectarines. 

"We are renovating 15% of our plantation surface every year, mainly in nectarines. We aim to have our production window between April 15 and May 30. We don't want sub-sour varieties, we want a fruit that has a good balance between sourness and sugar, with high brix levels and an intense flavor, a fruit with much color and, it's also important, that it has a small, absent and / or inverted apex," stated Sebastien Adnot.

Primor exports mainly to supermarkets in EU countries, Nordic countries, and Switzerland. It also performs air shipments to Southeast Asia, to Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We can't ship this fruit by sea because it is of the extra early variety and it wouldn't withstand such long trips. Our fruit has a high acceptance in Asia, where we hope to continue increasing our air shipments. They are very demanding markets in terms of sugar levels and aesthetics." 

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