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The crop's greenhouse cultivation is gradually expanding

Spain: "The market is demanding more zucchini"

"After years without growing zucchini, this week, if nothing unexpected happens, we will start harvesting it again." The company for which Ana Ibáñez works, Agrorizao, is not the only one that is now adding this vegetable to its product range, or which has chosen to increase its production. "The market is demanding more zucchini," says Mariano Zapata, who is the manager of the Mercagrisa wholesale market. "I think it's because it's easy to cook and there are so many ways to prepare it. Producers are also planting it as an alternative, especially to peppers (which are produced almost exclusively in greenhouses), because the soil benefits from the crop rotation."

Statistics show that the Region of Murcia's zucchini production has grown almost fourfold in the past decade. It has gone from fewer than 3,900 tons in 2007 to more than 15,200 tons last year. "It grew a lot at a given time and then it stabilized a bit," says Zapata.

An important phenomenon that has coincided with the increase in the production of Murcian zucchini is the expansion of the crop's greenhouse cultivation. Unlike in Almeria, in the Region of Murcia, it used to be planted mostly in the open ground. "But that causes many problems, because there are plenty more viral attacks," says Zapata. The crops under cover are better protected and this has encouraged many producers to make the switch.

While in 2011 there were scarcely 61 hectares of greenhouses devoted to zucchini cultivation, in 2017 this figure exceeded 250, which is equivalent to three quarters of the crop's total acreage in the Region.

Consequently, the amount of zucchini that is produced in greenhouses is now four times greater than less than a decade ago. It is almost a parallel development to the one recorded by the vegetable as a whole in the Region of Murcia. There is also a growing demand that justifies the product's expansion.

Agrorizao sells most of its production in bulk to Eastern European countries, which will also, to a large extent, be the destination for its new zucchini production.

 

Source: laverdad.es

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