From the air, Almería looks like an unfinished polythene jigsaw puzzle, interrupted only by clusters of habitation and parched pockets of land. Spanning 135 square miles, it is one of the most concentrated horticultural areas in the world and it is these polythene tunnels that allow its growers to provide a counter-season supply of salads and vegetables to its top three European markets; France, Germany and the UK.
But its heavy dependence on this artificial growing method has not always been positively received. While some object to the blight on the landscape, the practise has also come under fire in the UK press for worker safety and environmental damage.
However, the public’s perception of Almería and its growing practices is about to receive a positive boost. A group of 16 fruit and vegetable growing and exporting co-operatives and SATS have united under the guidance of Almerían fresh produce exporting body, Coexphal, to promote their conscientious approach to agriculture; together, the co-operatives are marketing their fresh produce using a stamp called Guarantee Securitam.
The stamp is based technically on the Spanish standard UNE155.001, which is used to assure the quality production of certain fruit and vegetables grown in protected conditions such as greenhouses. Overall, GS also covers nine different lines including courgettes, aubergines, lettuce, green beans, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons.
The UNE number is EurepGAP certified and assures food safety, protection of the environment and natural resources, worker well-being, complete traceability and an efficient quality system.
Despite a certification symbol already existing for growers adhering to UNE standards, (an ‘N’ symbol awarded by Spanish certification body AENOR), Uwe Schwießelmann, Coexphal secretary, explains that GS gives growers who want to invest time and money in promoting their produce a unique opportunity to stay ahead in exacting markets. “GS could include other norms and standards in the future, for example, BRC or an internal protocol if the group considered it appropriate. In a way we stand independent of the UNE norm and have more flexibility to react to the changing demands of our target markets,” he says. He also points out that the GS stamp will help the group differentiate themselves: “We had to create something that had to be only ours. If we as growers do not act to try and get our quality message through, nobody else will do it and our efforts will not be known to our clients.”
Schwießelmann explains that many growers certified under the AENOR N symbol became frustrated at the lack of impact the standard had on their business. So the group, which are all competitors, came together to promote their products’ quality. However, he says that while the project is showing signs of success, it is a long-term vision: “Working for more than two years, the price is something that will come in the future, we haven’t achieved that yet. That is not to say we will raise prices, but if you always invest money and time in that project, you want to have it pay one day. Growers pay for the quality checks and that’s very cost intensive.”
This autumn, three lines produced under the GS guidelines will be promoted in selected UK supermarkets as part of a £6m promotional push in collaboration with Foods from Spain (FFS). In total, 1.3m promotional packs of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes will be marketed in-store. The campaign follows a similar promotion of melons in Sainsbury’s earlier in the year. “We will promote GS as a mark of quality for the produce involved in the campaign to the trade and consumer,” Janine Gilson, senior product manager for FFS, says. “This is largely an education job, to communicate the message that GS is a quality assurance scheme that delivers high quality produce grown to the most exacting standards.”
Despite good ground work being laid by the FFS in-store promotion, Schwießelmann says getting retailers to help channel the GS message is far from easy: “British chains are very restrictive with regard to the opportunities they offer,” he explains. “It is due to brand policy that they are reluctant to collaborate in promotion of growers’ brands or quality stamps which they think could be taken for brands.”
This unsupportive stance seems to be undermining a lot of GS’s hard work. Schwießelmann explains that during an Asda radio announcement, GS was not even mentioned - the produce was simply referred to as Almerían, perhaps due to a reluctance to push what could be considered as a brand. Growers are becoming increasingly concerned that there is no connection between what the consumer chooses and the marketing schemes they are investing in.
Worse still, reports have reached many growers that some supermarkets take loose produce out of the branded boxes they arrive in and put them into generic plastic crates, and in doing this mix up lines of different origins.“We have no control over what happens to produce later on. We have had cases where the chain does not even know which country the produce comes from,” explains one of GS’s members. “They might call you and say ‘we’ve had problems’ but they do not even know where the produce comes from - Turkey or Spain…and consumers demand information first hand,” he says.
Despite these drawbacks, everyone involved in the scheme seems optimistic that the GS stamp will work, and more than that, it will provide a crucial shift in consumer attitudes towards Almerían produce. One grower explained that selling a product with a proper quality assurance would mean that other Almerían growers, who might be partly responsible for malpractice, would be easier to identify. In turn, growers who are committed to ethical treatment of employees and provide safe, good quality produce in the UK under the GS logo are able to disassociate themselves from the growers featured in the adverse press.
Gilson is optimistic of the campaign’s impact: “I think that consumers should be more aware of the effort that goes into putting good quality produce on the shelves of the shops in which they buy their food. We hope that our campaign will begin to create an association between Almería and great quality peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and melons,” she says.
“Overall, we hope that people will appreciate the enormous effort, which involves considerable investment that the members of GS are making to provide the UK market with top quality produce.”
WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE SNOW JOKE
SAT Indasol produces up to 70,000 tonnes of produce for the European markets and is made up of over 200 growers.
Paco Garcia Ortega, an agricultural engineer at Indasol, explains that cucumbers are grown and maintained using a hydroponics irrigation system, which automatically controls the distribution of fertilisers.
With no rain falling in the region since May, the problem of water for Almerían growers is a major one; however, thanks to the site’s positioning over an aquifer, Ortega says they are in a better position than most.
Water from melting snow on Almería’s many mountains can help in times of drought, but while snow in this form is welcome, Ortega explains that freak weather conditions are not. A hail and snow storm at the end of last year cost a lot of growers their green houses, Ortega explains. “It was the first snowfall in 50 years, the weight of the water and ice caused many of the structures’ roofs to cave in.”
The cucumber crops currently being grown were planted just over one month ago from seedlings, and will take around another month before reaching harvesting maturity, although this is variable.
When mature, they are sent off to the pack house before reaching their final destinations in Europe, however, Ortega explains that up to 30 per cent of the crop will instead end up being recycled into fertiliser thanks to stringent retail standards under which slightly curved or kinked examples are disallowed. Some of these might be sold on the domestic market, he says.
He also reveals that for the last two years, the co-operative has exported some produce to the US, although with little profit made thanks to the cost of airfreight. But it seems they are no strangers to poor profits, having just experienced a particularly bad season. “The quality is up, but the price remains the same,” he says. Currently they get around 20c a kilo, but the price dropped to half that earlier in the year and some growers have even had spells of picking below cost. He says growers are mystified as less acreage devoted to cucumbers this year has not translated into better prices.
Talking about GS, Ortega says he thinks it is a very good idea, despite bearing no short-term reward. However, “it is definitely along the right lines,” he concludes.
CASUR LOOKS TO THE FLAVOUR FACTOR
Casur was set up in 1994 and has witnessed phenomenal growth. Since becoming established, its member base has grown from 12 members to 280.
It exports a small amount of watermelon, but its major export is tomatoes, growing three different varieties of loose tomatoes and two of on the vine. Each year the company trials a couple of new varieties, looking for disease resistant crops, but also trying to find those with superior flavour as, Jose Martinez Potero, president of Casur, explains, “The market has finally woken up to flavour,”
Supplying mainly to multiple retailers in the UK, Germany, France and Austria, Potero says that most of the goods, produced under GS regulations as well as complying with several other certification bodies, are destined for Europe. “We invest so much time in the certification system that it’s not worth selling to our own markets,” he says.
In the UK, Casur supply to Marks & Spencer as well as Asda. It has been providing around 30 per cent of its tomatoes to Asda for the last five years, and Potero says that the retailer offers them a fair fixed price all year round, meaning profits are consistent. By purchasing the crops in advance, growers have the security that they have sold their harvest, although Potero concedes that this could mean they won’t be able to take advantage of positive price fluctuations when they occur. “It’s a bit like a marriage - both partners have to be committed,” he says.
He says that UK retailers seem to like supplier exclusivity: “They don’t like working with competitors. Tesco gave us an ultimatum when we started dealing with Asda, but [Asda] gave us more business, so we went with them,” he says.
Despite having their UK supply sewn up, he explains that they are looking to expand in Sweden and Denmark, two markets which Potero says are loyal to suppliers, making them an attractive next step. “All other European multiples will take the same product for a lesser price regardless of their history with the supplier,” he says.
Potero is extremely positive about the GS scheme: “It’s a way of aiding producers who work properly and well, and understand quality assurance schemes, as many don’t.”
“GS members can stand aside from other growers who may make mistakes,” he says.
NEW VARIETIES FROM NATURE’S CHOICE
Nature’s choice produces around 13,000t of capsicum for export markets in Europe and supplies cucumbers and capsicum to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Safeway, and Morrison’s in the UK.
In addition to standard bell varieties, NC growers are looking to tap into lucrative European markets with the introduction of new and unique varieties such as the Palmiro pepper, a close relative of the now popular Ramiro variety. The company is seeking to market the capsicum on the back of the success of the Ramiro, which the company says is one of the most demanded by the UK. The reasoning behind cultivating a slightly different variety was because it was better suited to the market, and can be grown at lower temperatures, meaning less heating is needed.
One grower explained that while flavour was extremely important, they did not select pepper varieties on this basis alone - their prime concern that the cultivar could withstand spot virus, which he explained, was an endemic problem in the region. He also cited that a high yield and a uniform size were important factors; they receive a set price for a box regardless of weight.
60 per cent of the capsicums grown are red, 30 per cent green, and orange and yellow make up the rest of its crop, and these proportions reflect consumer demand. Interestingly, one grower explained that due to the fluctuating demand for green peppers, NC does not grow a specific green variety. Instead, it uses a red variety and picks it while it is still green. “This means that we can leave the capsicum on the plant if the demand for green is low,” he says.
Roberto Dittman Alravez, a marketer at the company, explained that the UK multiple retailers are among some of the strictest for requesting uniformity from the produce it sells, and as a result, some of the imperfect crops have to be sold to the catering trade.
He says that the trend in the UK market was heavily swaying towards pre-packed capsicum: “The amount of loose capsicum is in decline, 40 per cent of our capsicum is now pre-packed compared to about 15 per cent a few years ago.”
He says that the company is looking at expanding its specialty and prepacked lines, especially as Almería is facing increasing competition from other countries. “We will be looking at growing peppers like Ramiro, Sweet Bite and mini Californian peppers,” he adds.
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