Looking back, the entire sector agrees that Almeria's 2022/23 campaign had two very distinct parts. "The fall/winter campaign was reasonably good; we could say that it was 'significantly' good in winter. Almeria was very well positioned in the market, and the prices were quite good. But things changed in April," stated Antonio Escobar, the manager of Nature Choice.
Source: Nature Choice.
"In fact, the spring campaign, in general, wasn't good because of an accumulation of supply and demand issues. In addition, prices were not great. Not only did the watermelon and melon not do well, but it wasn't the best moment for any of the other vegetables."
"In winter, there were no Dutch products on the market, and since Almeria didn't have that direct competition, it did quite well. That's not to say that Almeria had no competition at all. It continued to have competition from Turkey and Morocco; in addition, last year Egypt emerged as a producer of vegetables in general, but especially in peppers and cucumbers, and it's been very competitive in terms of quality and production," Antonio added.
"Producers are increasingly planting fewer early crops due to problems with viruses"
At this time, when producers are getting ready for a new campaign in Almeria, there is a delay in the plantations compared to other campaigns. "It seems that producers are less inclined to plant their crops early because of virus issues, especially the new virus, which have their greatest impact between September and October when there is more humidity in the greenhouses." In addition, they're taking into account that the best part of last year's campaign was the winter stretch, Antonio said.
Last season was certainly exceptional due to the absence of the Netherlands in the winter market, among other factors, which undoubtedly favored Almeria, helping it increase the sector's total turnover by 12% year-on-year, according to Coexphal figures.
"Nature Choice experienced exponential growth, not only last year but also in the previous one, and we want to consolidate this growth in the short term. To this end, we are making a strong investment to continue providing the best service to our customers and our workers."
"We've invested almost 3 million euros to change our cucumber line. We are also going to expand our facilities, which have remained small, especially for the volume we moved in the spring campaign," Antonio stated.
For more information:
Nature Choice
Carretera de Almerimar, 24
04700 El Ejido, Almería (España)
Tel.: +34 950 607 777
https://naturechoice-sat.com