Last year, the Spanish persimmon season literally and figuratively fell into the water. Unprecedented severe weather greatly reduced yields at the time, but this year, Sharon Veroone of Spanish Micofruit sees an opposite season. "The quality is excellent. Of course, we have to wait until the season unfolds before concluding, but it looks promising."
© Micofruit
The Valencia-based company is now run by the third generation. "The first generation started Micofruit by selling homegrown fruit locally at the market. His son then decided to expand sales across the Spanish market, after which the third generation wanted to take the step towards internationalisation," Sharon explains. Micofruit specialises in growing and packing persimmons, bottle pumpkins and stone fruit, with the Rojo Brillante persimmon still the company's flagship product.
Increasing demand
For Micofruit, the new season is about to begin. "While some have already started for a while, we choose to market the first Rojo Brillante at the end of September. By then, the fruit will have ripened optimally. The outlook is also positive: there has been no extreme weather in recent months. Although there was a lot of rain in the spring, that actually ensured healthy and vigorous tree development. Volumes are average, but the quality of the persimmons is very good."
© Micofruit
The company is therefore optimistic about the season, partly thanks to increasing demand. "In recent years, demand for persimmons has grown steadily, which reinforces optimism in the sector and suggests that prices will rise this season," Sharon explains. "However, this favourable context is also accompanied by a significant increase in production costs. Spending on fieldwork and labour has risen by 15–20%, posing an additional challenge for producers to maintain profitability without compromising quality."
Expanding facilities
They see this demand mainly in European markets. "We supply persimmons in Spain itself, but also throughout Europe. We also ship containers to the United Arab Emirates and Canada. The European market, in particular, is growing tremendously. Ten years ago, relatively few people knew the persimmon, but now many prefer it over an apple."
© Micofruit
"The increasing popularity of persimmons, combined with the aim of further consolidating our growth, has led us to expand our facilities this year. New cold stores have been added to ensure an optimal cold chain, and in addition, the equipment has been upgraded with a quality vision system that allows us to increase production capacity and ensure better product control. In this way, we expect to grow along with the rising demand in the future."
For more information:
Sharon Veroone
Micofruit
C/D Fco Climent Pons 4
La Pobla del Duc, Valencia, Spain
Tel: +34 650 84 77 45
[email protected]
www.micofruit.es