Spain: Profitability of Canary agriculture in jeopardy
Canary Islands are actually celebrating their 130th anniversary of exporting tomatoes into the European markets. The optimal climatic conditions found in the islands, were temperature averages 25ºC throughout the year, and very seldom temperature drops below 15ºC (not even in the coldest nights), allows them to grow 100% naturally, with the sun as the only resource for providing light and heat. Clearly, this is noticed in the unique flavour of their tomatoes, were tomatoes still taste like tomatoes!
The sector has changed drastically in the last years, and the challenges that Mr. Bonny is facing at the moment differ a lot from those his father had to overtake when he founded the company 80 years ago. The biggest issue at the moment is the gradual and steady reduction of exports, estimated at about 5-10% per year. Mr Bonny explains that a big reason for this is the fact that “the Government was supposed to pay us money from the Strategic Tomato Plan, approved by Brussels, which was to last for five years and ensure a more professional way of growing, but after two years, they stopped paying; people had made their investments and the tomato sales did not yield enough returns, so many have suffered considerable financial problems.”
Another key factor is that “we’ve always asked the Spanish government for transport compensations. They were supposed to pay 60% of the cost of transport to the closest Mainland Europe port (Cádiz), but the last two years they only paid about 24%; so unlike France, we are at a disadvantage as an ultra-peripheral region of the European Union,” he affirms. “We are only asking for support so that we can compete on equal terms.”
In addition to these issues at domestic level, he assures that the impact of the Russian ban has been terrible, not just for them, but for all growers, who have had to switch many of their shipments to central Europe. Furthermore, “some of our competitors, like Morocco or Israel, have not considerably increased their shipments to Russia because of the weakness of the rouble.”
For growers in the Canary Islands, Morocco remains thus the main competitor, because of the difference in costs, especially labour costs, but also Almeria, due to the large volumes they ship. Partly because of this, “the acreage in the Canary Islands is being reduced by 10% per year and many are switching to bananas, papayas and other vegetables for the local and national market, where they obtain a better profitability due to high local demand. In our case, the local market is our second largest customer and we are starting to focus our business more on it,” states Mr Bonny.
At the moment, Bonny’s main markets are all in Europe, with 50% going to the United Kingdom, where it has a fixed program with supermarkets, and the other 50% shipped to the continent, where exports are agreed with distributors on a weekly basis. “From Rotterdam, our products are distributed to Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany, and we also sell in the Netherlands and the rest of continental Europe,” he assures.
Besides tomatoes, of which Bonny is also able to supply specialties on demand, like cherry on the vine, mini-plums, or truss tomatoes, the firm grows cucumbers and lettuce and small quantities of other vegetables, like broccoli. “Most of the products are grown on soil, but some also use rockwool or coconut fibre and I believe we have an advantage over Dutch tomatoes in terms of taste.”
Despite this, he concludes that the agricultural industry in the island may be in danger of disappearing within 10 years if the government doesn’t start offering more support to the growers and reacts on time. From Mr. Bonny’s side, and the organization he leads, they will continue setting all their effort and know-how, as well as innovating and improving infrastructures, to make sure that the Canary Islands tomatoes remain as a reference of quality, flavour, and trust in the whole of Europe.
For more information:
Jota Cabrera Bonny
Gerente de exportación
SAT JULIANO BONNY GÓMEZ
T: (+34)928.303.209
M: (+34)629.309.420
[email protected]
www.bonny.es
