With November around the corner and temperatures still hovering around 30 degrees Celsius, peppers are ripening too fast and the walls do not have time to harden. It is creating complications across the region. Nothing is predictable with this heat. Growers in Almeria are waiting for colder weather to arrive.
In eggplant, tomato, zucchini and cucumber, the start of the Almeria season is being viewed positively. Peppers are the exception. Here, concern is growing due to the impact of thrips.
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The heat acceleration means that pepper varieties that worked well three years ago are no longer performing. The fruit fails to develop firm walls, which affects transport and shelf life. In tomatoes, growers used to reach size grade G with ease, and now they struggle to exceed size M. Some companies are investing in breeding because the climate is changing everything.
Eggplant is not causing issues, but in tomato Rama there are difficulties reaching size G due to the heat. If other countries manage to offer size G and Spain cannot, it will be a significant disadvantage.
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Some growers have started planting later. Instead of late July, they now plant at the end of August to avoid the worst of the heat and improve quality.
Integrated pest management has been gaining ground for years and continues to expand, as allowed treatments are losing effectiveness and high temperatures in autumn and winter favor pest development.
Pests have become a serious problem, especially in peppers due to Thrips parvispinus. Last year, the pest was not present in higher altitude growing areas, but this year signs have already appeared. In lower zones, some growers have already pulled out entire crops because of it.
For now, no insect naturally preys on this thrips. Some growers are pushing for the European Union to allow at least temporary use of a treatment against it. Given the difficulty of that happening, a possible solution, according to some producers, is to inform consumers that thrips causes a visual defect but does not result in rot or flavor alteration. Another issue is that thrips increases the amount of second grade fruit, and there is not enough market to place all of it.
The tomato rugose virus has been brought under control through new resistant varieties. True, some fruit size has been lost, but crops are producing without major difficulty. The real problem now is thrips in peppers. The most viable solution may be to bring the reality of the field closer to consumers and accept that sometimes produce can have visual imperfections without affecting quality.