Expected early volumes of raspberries from Huelva have not materialised leaving the market short of fruit. "There have been some issues with cane manipulation," said a spokesman for The Summerfruit Company. "The problem appears to be across the whole region and a shortage of raspberry from this area is forecast throughout December.
Alconera UK specialises in fruit grown by its own production base in the region as well as in neighbouring production areas across the border in Portugal. "It has been very cold in Huelva and in Portugal too since last week," said Alconera’s Tony Dominguez. "This has had a significant impact on the ripening of the fruit and has slowed down ripening."
Dominguez reported that temperatures have fallen below freezing in the Huelva area as low as -1°C to -2°C.
The problem also dates back to the summer. "It was too hot in August and that affected the early plantings," explained Dominguez. In effect new plantings, particularly of Glen Lyon were affected and first plantings due to come on stream in the early marketing window died because of the high temperatures. This has left a gap in availability. The cold has now delayed fruit development in those plants that survived.
"We are expecting fruit availability to be delayed by at least another two weeks," said Dominguez. "But we are bringing fruit out of Portugal where we have Driscoll varieties and there is some limited harvesting going on in Huelva."
The market for the fruit is extremely strong on the Continent as well as in the UK and this past week prices have been up to e18-20 a kg this compares to e15 this time last year, which was already a very strong price.
"In the UK we have even seen prices running at 200-250p a punnet for the catering sector," said Dominguez, "depending on quality."
As well as Portugal, some suppliers are calling on the US and Chile to fill the gap in availability.
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