Producers in Murcia are warning that the unseasonably high temperatures experienced in recent weeks are bringing forward harvesting and threaten to derail the 2015/16 winter vegetable campaign.
Harvesting of lettuce and broccoli – two of the region’s biggest products –has already got under way in areas around Campo de Cartagena and Guadalentín – several weeks earlier than in a normal year.
The mild winter is also keeping demand in check across many central European countries who usually rely on Spanish supplies at this time of year but have been able to meet demand with domestic production so far this season.
Demand is believed to be down by 20-30 per cent, producers say.
“The best thing that could happen right now is for a cold wave to sweep across central Europe,” Jesús Abenza of Alimer told La Opinión de Murcia.
Strawberry production in Huelva has also been brought forward by around one month, leading to a supply glut that has caused prices to fall sharply.
Cristóbal Picón of the Costa de Huelva cooperative said that whereas growers were being paid €3-4 per kg in early December this had dropped by 50 per cent at the end of the month, in spite of the Christmas holidays.
“The season should just be getting under way but in actual fact production is currently at levels not normally seen until the end of January,” he told Agrodiariohuelva.es.
Picón warned that with later varieties also running ahead of schedule, the whole season could be a washout.
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