"We are a bit in each other's way," is how Stephan van Marrewijk of Vicasol sums up the Spanish fruit vegetable season. "The Spanish season is starting slowly, but many countries still have their own productions. From next week, I expect many customers to switch to the Spanish product. All in all, a very different start to the season, especially for products like cucumbers and courgettes. But I do expect the market to straighten out reasonably well within two weeks and normal marketing programmes to start up."
"The planting of Spanish tomatoes is a lot earlier than last year. Last year, there were a lot of concerns around ToBRFV, so planting was a lot later. You see now that there is more confidence in the market that the resistant/tolerant varieties will hold up. After a contraction, the acreage of loose, vine, and plum tomatoes even grew slightly again this year," Stephan says. The Dutchman was sent to Spain during his time at the well-known fresh produce company Disselkoen and has now been working in Spain for 28 years, the last 18 of which at Vicasol.
© Izak Heijboer | FreshPlaza.com
"However, the specialties do show a decline in supply across the board. This is due to competition from Morocco, but also the lack of capacity in these labour-intensive crops. One exception is midi cucumbers, which did increase in acreage this year. These are becoming more popular and therefore more planted." At Vicasol, organic acreage has grown by 20 hectares this year to a total organic acreage of 293 hectares. "Across the board, you see growers also switching back to conventional, but at our cooperative, the organic acreage continues to grow," Stephan says.
A clear trend, according to Stephan, is that the window of the season in Almeria is coming under increasing pressure due to hot summers. For this reason, Vicasol is increasingly switching to other production regions in Spain, where it is also trying to attract more growers. This year, the cooperative also had watermelon production outside Almeria throughout the summer. "Cultivation-wise, this went well because we had enough water. But because yields everywhere were high, the average market price was very low."
To anticipate the labour shortage, Vicasol is fully committed to automation and robotisation. "We continue to invest in this. For example, we have already acquired new sorting and packaging machines for tomatoes and cucumbers, and peppers are next on the list," Stephan says.
For more information:
Stephan van Marrewijk
Vicasol
04738 Puebla de Vícar (Almería) - Spain
Tel: +34 950 55 32 00
[email protected]
www.vicasol.es