Weather conditions in the main soft-fruit growing area of Huelva in south-western Spain have been cold, damp and cloudy, leading to a very tight supply situation on strawberries and raspberries for the UK market.
“It has been extremely cold and wet,” said Ian Waller of Redbridge Worldfresh. “We are hoping that conditions will alter in the next week or so, but the market in general is very short with a lot of demand.
“It is even shorter on raspberries, as everyone has been relying on Huelva. It will take the return of the sunshine for at least two to four days before we can expect to see an improvement in quantities coming forward from Spain, which is currently our sole source.
“This soft-fruit crop has been most affected by the conditions, with the inevitable result that prices have strengthened.”
Waller hopes strawberry availability will return to more seasonably normal levels by the end of February and points to medium-term forecasts of better weather for the next two weeks.
“The position has shown signs of improvement in Morocco, although this impact has been nullified in turn by a burst of poorer weather in Israel. Egypt, meanwhile, is still able to provide reasonable quantities,” he said.
John Grieve of importer Lisons reports that strawberry prices are running high. “We were down to about 50-60p a punnet at the beginning of last week but now it’s more like 90-100p for 250g,” he said. “That was because last week it looked like availability was picking up but it has slowed again. It is just that the weather is so unsettled - it is cloudy, they have low temperatures and rain. It is real British weather.”
Grieve also reported brief availability of Moroccan strawberries. There was a bit of Moroccan fruit coming through, but that sold very cheaply and has stopped again now,” he said. “It will stay like this at least until Valentine’s Day.”
