This year's asparagus campaign has been excellent because of the quantity and quality of the product, as reported by Grupo AN, which has marketed more than 800,000 kilos of asparagus this year, both in the fresh market (175,000 kilos) and in the canning industry (650,000).
As explained by Grupo AN in its journal Acción Cooperativa, this year's weather conditions have been perfect and have allowed for an early start of the harvest in the month of March.
The absence of rainfall and high temperatures resulted in the Middle Zone (municipalities such as Caparroso or Murillo) becoming productive almost at the same time as the Ribera area.
The quality has been very good, although the cooperative says that "there has been a lack of larger calibres."
Thus, the demand for the 16-22 and 16+ calibres has been met without any problems, but not 100% of the 22+ calibre production forecasts have been met, because there hasn't been enough asparagus of that size.
This campaign, Grupo AN has given a boost in the domestic market to its flagship product: peeled fresh asparagus presented on a tray, which has gradually gained a place on supermarket shelves.
This fresh asparagus, which has grown by 120% compared to the previous season, has come to account for 16% of the product's sales at Grupo AN.
Regarding the recovery of asparagus with the Navarre PDO, Grupo AN highlights that, at the end of 2016, there were 1,512.55 hectares planted with this crop, after more than 500 hectares have been planted over the last two years.
However, there are 265 hectares planted before 2009 which hardly yield any production. Also, the new plantations of 2016 are not yet at full capacity, and those of 2017 have yet to become productive.
Thus, Grupo AN points out that Navarra does in fact have some 1,100 productive hectares.
Source: EFE
