Market and harvest report

British meteorologists were the only ones to predict that 2009-2010 would be a very cold winter. And they were dead right: the winter was cold, hard and long.
As a result, all spring harvests were delayed.

 

 

 

Spinach:
in Spain, some of the early spinach fields were destroyed by hail and in Italy by heavy rain. In the rest of Europe, winter spinach suffered from the dry weather. The result: lower yields. Meanwhile, demand for frozen spinach is

exceptionally high. Due to shortages in Southern Europe, low yields and exhausted stocks, spinach prices will be quite high

in 2010-2011 and the available volumes low.

 

Cauliflower:

production in Brittany was delayed by the low winter temperatures since the end of December. In March things finally

improved: thanks to the rising temperatures, the cauliflower was ready to harvest. But this was very late with

the risk of large volumes being harvested at the same time and unable to be processed. Prices remain high.

 

Artichoke: 

freezing weather and heavy rain seriously disrupted artichoke production in Spain. Egypt was unable to produce the required

volumes either. The price of fresh artichokes remains very high. It will probably not be possible to produce

all the necessary volumes.

 

The cold winter weather did not just cause problems harvesting winter crops. Sowing and planting

of spring, summer and autumn crops was also considerably delayed.

Broccoli:

planting is delayed by 2 to 3 weeks.

Courgettes:
sowing is delayed for several weeks in Portugal.

Tomatoes:
They were planted out a few weeks late. Tomatoes have gradually earned a permanent place in the frozen segment.

Several new varieties will therefore be tested this year in Alpiarça (Portugal).

 

Peas:

they were sown late in Spain, Portugal and Southern France. Sowing appears to be on schedule in Northern Europe.

 

Onions:

planted out in March. As it will not be possible to make up for the shortfalls, prices for frozen onions will probably remain

high until October.

 

Market reports

 

2009 frozen stocks have now been depleted by the rising demand for fresh-frozen products and the limited supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, which are also expensive. Due to the late harvest in 2010, with lower yields in many cases, availability of some vegetables may be tight. Hopefully the weather will be favourable this summer and autumn.
According to the UK meteorologists, which were the only ones to predict the extremely cold winter, the

summer will be exceptionally hot and dry. Comparisons are even being made with the summer of 1976. If this is right, it

will be very challenging to bring the necessary fresh-frozen fruit and vegetable stocks back up to the required levels.

 

 

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