"This nervousness at the start of the garlic campaign is incomprehensible"

Producers and Traders of Garlic, ANPCA, met in Las Pedroñeras (Cuenca) to analyze and discuss the current situation of the garlic sector at the national and international level.

The harvest of the early Spring garlic variety in Andalusia, the region with the earliest harvest and that has more than 5,000 hectares devoted to this crop, is about to end. The yields were good and, despite the meteorological inclemencies suffered in the middle and end of May, which affected less than 15% of the crop in its main harvest moment, the product's quality is good in general.

The main production region, Castilla-La Mancha, has almost 15,000 hectares cultivated this year. The harvest in this region has already ended and was developed slowly this year, as there was a scarce availability of labor, and the manual process of harvesting and storing is very labor intensive. The quality obtained in the production of this type of garlic has been rated as exceptional, which together with the good climatic conditions that are occurring, will result in a final product capable of covering the most demanding consumer demand.

The association also analyzed the beginning of the marketing campaign for this new garlic, and stated that the sectors' nervousness due to the low sales operations was incomprehensible. "The storage levels at the start of this campaign were very low and the market had high levels of demand. Price levels recorded at the beginning of the campaign, however, are below what is acceptable to the market," stated Luis Fernando Rubio.

"We come from a campaign in which prices were very beneficial for the whole sector and in which the storage chambers were emptied, so there is no imperative need to bring product to market at low prices."

At the same time, garlic prices have been stable for more than two weeks in China and the processing industry in this country needs to be restocked, so the local market is absorbing well this year's volume increase. International markets are relatively empty.

It seems that the strikes by the stevedores have prevented the export of numerous containers of garlic, a factor that, according to Luis Fernando Rubio, could have repercussions on "the fear some exporters have about not being able to market their product."

However, he said he thought they were carrying out sales at these levels through the mechanisms of unfair competition that have been detected in companies in the sector, in breach of the legal requirements established for the optimal commercialization of the product. 

The association stated that it would continue with its surveillance work so that all companies operating in the market comply with the same controls in terms of occupational safety and the quality of the final product made available to the consumer. In this last campaign, ANPCA communicated with several companies to request the regularization of their situation to avoid distortions in the market.

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