Spain has seen some very bad weather already this year, with the heavy rain and flooding in January caused by the DANA at the end of January. The country is now been hit with more persistent, heavy rain which is set to continue into next week. This will, of course, affect the supply of fresh produce coming into the UK, the main difference this time is that we are well into the season so the plants are set and hopefully we will see recovery quickly once the weather improves.
Ben Goodchild from Nationwide Produce is just back from a trip to the soft fruit growing region in Spain and Portugal where he said the rain was persistent but temperatures were better than in a previous visit at the end of January. "It is very overcast and there is not a lot of wind, but luckily some air movement which will help keep quality up. The majority of Spanish soft fruit production is covered which also offers an element of protection, but the overcast conditions have slowed down production."
Ben said that the fruit is there, but it is still green, waiting for the sun to shine.
"Volumes have already diminished, causing a jump in prices over the last three days. This weather event is expected to last for another week, so no immediate change is likely. The reality is that most of Europe is looking to Spain at the moment for soft fruit. While there are small glasshouse productions in Holland, the UK and other European countries, overall volumes remain limited.
"Morocco is in production at the moment, but there is currently a 2-3 day delay at the port due at the Moroccan side."
The Spanish infrastructure has not fully recovered since the floods in January with many roads still having plenty of potholes. Ben expects there to be some flooding caused by the heavy and consistent rain.
"There is a big demand for anything red at the moment. Normally, if there is a shortage on strawberries, people will buy raspberries, but there are not many raspberries around either. Spain has reduced plantings by almost 50% over the last few years, and it will be 2-3 weeks before production from the long cane raspberries is on the market.
"Soft fruit demand is strong at this time of the year; we have Ramadan, followed by Mother's Day and then a short gap until the Easter weekend. Demand is expected to remain high for March and April in the run-up to the full Dutch/Belgian glasshouse season and the start of the main outdoor crop.
For more information:
Ben Goodchild
Nationwide Produce
Tel: +44 (0)1386 424800
Email: [email protected]
www.nationwideproduce.com