"Stonefruit campaign has been disastrous so far in terms of prices"

The stonefruit campaign has already started in Extremadura with apricots, peaches and nectarines, and it has done so much earlier than last season, although with significantly lower prices.

"The beginning of this campaign was disastrous in terms of prices, even though we are offering better quality fruit than last year," states Salvador Álvarez, manager of Naturcrex. "The fruit's price stands between 15 and 20 cents below the average recorded at the beginning of the previous season."

According to the producer and exporter, the Region of Murcia, which has gained a lot of ground on Seville as a producer of early stonefruit, currently has large stocks in its chambers and the markets are flooded with a supply that is greater than the demand.

"Murcia's producers, who in recent years have greatly increased the acreage devoted to stonefruit, have mostly bet on extra-early fruit, focusing especially on varieties that are harvested in the month of May," explains Salvador Álvarez .

"May is the month when supermarkets have to transition to the new stonefruit campaign while finishing with the winter fruit supply programs. Consequently, if such large volumes of fruit hit the market, this ends up collapsing. "The warehouses are quickly filled with fruit and the exporters become nervous, offering very aggressive prices." To this we must add that the month of May has been too cold in the main export destinations, which has aggravated the situation," he points out.

Salvador Álvarez expects prices to stabilise as of next week, when Murcia will be finishing its season and small volumes will start arriving from Italy. "I do not think prices will go back up, but I hope they will at least stabilise and will not keep falling during the next week."

Naturcrex devotes part of its production to the domestic market, where it works with large and small supermarket chains. Europe is its natural market for export and its sights have been set on Germany this year.

"The German market will be our main target for the export of plums, since it is the European country with the highest per capita consumption of this fruit. We already have programs set up with the main supermarket chains in this country," explains the manager of this company based in Extremadura.

Meanwhile, when it comes to overseas destinations, China has been gaining popularity as an export destination among Spanish fruit operators since the opening of this market last summer. "In the previous campaign, we shipped the first Angeleno plums with optimum results, so this year we hope to export more volumes. Even though it is still a market to be discovered, it is very attractive because of its huge population, despite the fact that it is also a market with very tough requirements, as they demand a fruit that is both hard and with high Brix degrees."