Iceberg lettuce growers from the Spanish region of Murcia are forecasting that they will close the season with an average weekly reduction in exports of 35 per cent year on year.
The 2009-10 season for iceberg lettuce has been a dismal one for producers. Proexport, the association which represents producer-exporters in Murcia, said the massive decline is down to climatic conditions.
Director general Fernando Gómez Molina said: “Since the beginning of the year, Spanish iceberg exports have been compromised by external factors, namely the weather. This has also affected replantings that growers had hoped to harvest over the next three weeks. The result is that we will not come close to repeating the export levels we achieved for the same time last year.”
This drop-off in availability at the end of April and into May is coinciding with the start of production in the UK and northern European countries.
