Portugal might not be well known for supplying the UK, but the last few years have seen Portuguese growers and exporters raising their game and diversifying from top-fruit sendings into vegetables and salads.
Out of the 19 British Retail Consortium (BRC)-accredited fresh produce packhouses in Portugal, only two handle vegetables and salad products - namely carrots, turnips, radishes, squash, spinach and Chinese leaf - but as UK consumers demand more of the same in the way of butternut squash, runner beans, on-the-vine tomatoes and courgettes, the Portuguese industry is making the most of the opportunity.
But the road to progress never runs smooth and strong winds of hurricane force swept through Portugal almost exactly 12 months ago, causing massive disruption and shortages throughout the glasshouse industry. This caused an estimated €40 million in damage for the Portuguese fruit and vegetable industry and growers are still licking their wounds.
“Approximately 10 hectares of glasshouses were lost and most glasshouse growers were affected in some way,” says Jacinto Leandro, a member of agricultural bank Caixa Agricola de Torres Vedras. “Within six months, most of them had their infrastructure back in place, but the industry is still recovering. Most of the money needed came from the Portuguese government, but
co-operatives still needed the extra support.
“The hurricane hit growers of tomatoes and lettuce worst and it was a very hard time for Portuguese growers. It destroyed around 80 per cent of business and of course production was much less, but now most are back to normal production.”
Being a Mediterranean country, Portugal is usually well suited to glasshouse production, with continuously high light levels throughout the year. Tomato grower Paulo Maria has seen the worst of it, as the hurricane hit just as he had doubled his company Horto Maria’s capacity with new glass amounting to 41,000sqm. The majority of Hort Maria’s production was pulled up by the roots, wiping the business out for most of the following year.
“The whole of Santa Cruz was really badly affected and a lot of the glasshouses were totally destroyed,” says Maria, who estimates that it will take five to six years to recover financially from the ordeal, even with a grant from the Portuguese ministry of agriculture that covers 75 per cent of the cost of the damage. “Around 40 years ago something similar happened, but there were not as many glasshouses around then and I have certainly never seen anything this devastating in my lifetime.”
Maria now hopes to start exporting to the UK market through a new vegetable packhouse in the area built by Emergosol, a Portuguese company with English roots. Established by former JP Fruit and DPS employee Anne Langan seven years ago, Emergosol was set up when it became clear that there was a need for an intermediary supplier based in Portugal. Langan - who sent the first consignment of Rocha pears to the UK in 1989 through JP Fruit -has worked along with her daughter Emma Rogers and her daughter’s husband Hugo Franco to build up business with the likes of Dole and Oxford Fruit in mostly top fruit, stonefruit, grapes and kiwifruit, but now the company is diversifying into specialist vegetables such as purple sprouting broccoli, beans, peas and squash.
“Portuguese butternut squash is proving to be a very big product for us,” says Langan, who opened Emergosol’s first vegetable packhouse facility in Santa Cruz in December 2009. “Demand is doubling year on year and we will export more than 2,000 tonnes this harvest [July until September]. With storage, we could serve the market up until April but we keep selling out of what we have.”
Emergosol sources butternut squash from growers in southern Portugal, from Santa Cruz to the Algarve, and says that production is on the up due to interest from the UK market. “It’s one of those products that is both very much in demand and can’t be grown easily in the UK, so it is almost immune to the freight or environmental debate,” adds Surrey-born Langan, who expects demand to continue to increase each year for some time to come.
Portuguese chestnuts were also in demand over the Christmas period and niche items, such as chow chow and heart-shaped tomatoes, are becoming popular with UK consumers.
The Santa Cruz packhouse has been built to BRC standards and is in the process of gaining the accreditation. It is Emergosol’s first fully-owned packhouse and will be run in addition to more than 20 rented packhouse facilities around the country, although the company is eventually aiming for 70 per cent of its customers to be served from this packhouse.
“We want to develop the vegetable side of the business and increase how much we trade, while keeping the fruit part of the business level,” explains Franco. “First stop is BRC accreditation, which will be our point of difference as there are hardly any BRC-accredited vegetable packhouses in Portugal. We are going to work on sourcing more brassicas and squash.”
Emergosol is already diversifying into other kinds of squash such as Celebration, as well as the present money-maker, butternut squash.
“Butternut squash is fast becoming one of the biggest imports from Portugal into the UK,” says Oxford Fruit’s commercial manager Tony Udall.
“Retailers are looking towards local production, but the product grows so well in Portugal. We are going to see a lot more from the country in the future.”
VEG GROWER HAS HIGH HOPES FOR UK TRADE
Vegetable grower Paulo Santos, part of grower association Global Fruit, supplies the UK with 60,000kg of courgettes a year through Emergosol, as well as runner beans, broccoli and pears, and is looking forward to working through the new Emergosol facility.
“Prices are much better on the UK market, but the quality must be at the highest level,” says Santos (pictured). “I am ready to produce more courgettes, should demand present itself. It is important for the Portuguese fresh produce industry to open more doors to supply the UK and this is what Emergosol has done. Other firms try to go to market and they are not so well informed. We are preparing the seeds of the future.”
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