According to the forecasts made by the General Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture of the province of Almeria, a total of 11,570 hectares will be devoted to the cultivation of peppers in the 2019/20 campaign. This is 445 hectares more (+4%) than the 11,125 hectares of the 2018/2019 campaign. It is worth noting that the greenhouses built in the province of Almeria have a total of 31,272 hectares.
According to the representatives in Almería of the Council of Agriculture, this increase in the acreage is due to the fact that biological control techniques are very advanced with this crop. Biological control and integrated production are the key. Pepper prices, although with the usual ups and downs, have remained more or less stable in recent campaigns, they said.
Tomato
As for the forecast for tomato cultivation in Almeria, the General Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture in that province has said that the acreage will be reduced to 8,790 hectares, with a fall of 765 hectares (-8%) compared to the 2018/2019 campaign, in which the acreage amounted to 9,555 hectares.
According to the General Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture of Almeria, the reasons for this drop in the area dedicated to tomato cultivation are the difficulties in the control of the Tuta absoluta, as well as the higher labor costs.
Zucchini
The same sources also highlight the increase in the number of hectares devoted to zucchini cultivation, which in the 2019/2020 campaign stood at 8,034 hectares; 595 hectares more than in the previous campaign (+8%).
In this case, the increase is explained by the fact that it is a fast-growing crop, so results are obtained earlier, and a smaller investment is required until the harvest is ready.
Cucumber
As in the case of peppers, the area devoted to cucumber cultivation has also grown by 187 hectares (+4%), which brings the total acreage devoted to that vegetable in the 2019/2020 campaign to 4,864 hectares, compared to 4,677 in the previous campaign.
Eggplant
The acreage devoted to eggplant cultivation in the province of Almería has also grown, but not as much. The 2,164 hectares that were devoted to the crop in the 2018/2019 campaign have become 2,207 (+2%), as revealed by the General Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture of Almeria.
Source: hortoinfo.es