Foods from Spain, a Spanish embassy organisation, supports an initiative that promotes a number of Spanish fresh fruit and vegetables into the UK. This year, for the first time, the organisation is promoting Denominación De Origen Costa Tropical (Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin) certified cherimoya, as well as the more widely known persimmon. Foods from Spain is hoping that the cherimoya industry will follow in the footsteps of persimmon - the Spanish kaki fruit, which is marketed under the Spanish spelling: persimon - and start to make an impression on the UK market.
“It is hard for a new product to break into any market, let alone a mature one like the UK,” says María José Sevilla, Foods from Spain director. “Established products have to work hard just to maintain a presence in the UK market. But our main aim is to make sure that UK consumers recognise that products like cherimoya and persimmon are from Spain, and we want consumers to then look out for Spanish product, because of its quality.”
This is where the two governing bodies Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin for cherimoya and Denominacio d’origin Ribera Del Xuquer, the persimmon regulatory council, come in. The Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin was created in 2002 by the Spanish government to promote and protect the quality and origin of Spanish cherimoyas. There are five exporters that are protected under the Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin, which deal with approximately 1,000 producers in the subtropical Rio Verde region in Granada: El Romeral, Agrojete, Latino Tropical, Los Cursos and Frutas Fasjardo. These five traders have to adhere to a series of strict inspections in order to be granted the trademark ‘Anona’s’. “The Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin is ruled by a regulatory council and it has to approve the product before it can be exported,” says Ramón González García, secretary general of the DO. “There are two teams of inspectors; one team in the distribution centre and another on the land before the fruit is picked. Only then will the fruit receive the Anona’s trademark. The council certifies the quality of the fruit and watches over the general condition of the crop.” The organisation hopes that this guarantee will make it easier for the fruit to make an impact on the UK market. “We have not marketed cherimoyas in this way in the UK before and so we are hoping to see a growth this year,” says Antonio V. Sánchez González, vice-president of the organisation. “We want to improve the quality of the fruit and sell more to the UK market. But we realise that we have a long way to go and have to get the fruit recognised by customers.”
The persimmon industry has taken its campaign a step further, with growers’ organisation, Co-operativa Nuestra Señora del Oreto (CANSO) developing a new version of persimmon aimed at the UK market, alongside production and marketing co-operative, Anecoop. Located in the town of L’Alcudia, CANSO’s growers are situated in one of the most important fruit and vegetable producing regions in Valencia. Mainly known for its citrus fruit production, the co-operative is steadily moving into persimmon production because of its larger returns for growers compared to the highly competitive Spanish citrus market.
Five years ago, CANSO established a contract with the post-harvest department of Instituto de Valenciano Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) for the development of a reliable and safe method for the elimination of the astringency in the persimmon fruit. José Garrigues of export development agency ICEX explains: “This is a new variation of the soft kaki, which has been developed especially for the Spanish and European markets. It is the Rojo Brillante [Brilliant Red] variety, but it is bigger in size - like an apple - and you can eat it like an apple. It is not soft like the traditional kaki because it goes through a 24-hour carbon dioxide treatment, which extracts the astringency.”
This new type of persimmon is going down well in the Spanish domestic market and hopes are high that it will make the same impact in the UK. “Consumption of the soft persimmon has been very low in Spain over the last couple of years,” says Rafael Perucho Máñez, director of the Ribera Del Xúquer. “Now with the introduction of the firmer Denomination of Origin persimmon, consumption has increased and continues to.”
The Spanish persimmon industry has come on leaps and bounds over the last 10 years since production was commercialised, according to Perucho Máñez. “Kaki used to be everywhere 10 years ago, but they were mostly isolated trees in back gardens,” he says. “Now we produce 40 million kilos in Valencia. It is growing fast in and out of the region - so it is possible that Spain produces 60m kg.”
Both the cherimoya and persimmon industries are expanding to cope with a future demand from the UK market. The cherimoya crop has seen a great start to the season, which runs from October to February, with a 10 per cent rise in production predicted so far. And CANSO has increased its 1,000-hectare persimmon crop by a further 10 per cent this year.
The Spanish persimmon’s main customers are France, Italy and Germany, with Italy importing more than 1m kg of the fruit a year. The export figure to the UK stands at 500,000 kg, but Perucho Máñez maintains that this will increase in time. “We have started to sell hard persimmon to the UK supermarkets, but it is difficult to introduce something new,” he says. “The reason is that the consumers and retailers do not like change. The soft Sharonfruit varieties have a market in the UK, but in very small quantities.”
Cherimoyas are native to Peru and Ecuador, but the Spanish crop, which flourishes in Granada’s subtropical climate, removes the need to airfreight the product. The Granada region lies in a microclimate and receives an average of 320 days of sunshine, but the crop has experienced some difficulties over the last couple of years.
However, now is the perfect time for the Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin to promote its exotic fruit, as the crop is working its way towards a steady season. “This has been the first year that the weather has been favourable,” says González García. “In 2005, we experienced the most horrendous frost and we lost a lot of fruit. As a result of this production was down again in 2006, but we have returned to a stabilised production this year and it is steadily returning to normal.”
In fact, according to González García, the cherimoya industry is expecting to produce more than its average production this year and it could be up by 10 per cent. Last year’s production from Rio Verde reached 40,000 tonnes and this year the Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin is hoping to certify 5,000t of cherimoya under the deal, with a projected 10 per cent of that making it over to the UK market. Spain exports 200,000kg of cherimoyas to the UK, but the Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin programme aims to get that amount up to 300,000kg this year. “We are beginning to gather the crop and it looks like it will be a good year for cherimoyas,” says González García. “What really matters is when you collect the fruit from the trees. As long as the temperature does not fall under 10°C, the fruit will be fine. The problems come during the night, when the temperature has been know to drop.”
CANSO and Anecoop are working on improving the quality of persimmons and have found that the UK market can be very demanding. Superficial marks and scarring can occur on the fruit from the persimmon tree’s branches and leaves. To overcome this problem the branches are tied back at the start of the harvest, wind barriers are put in place and a quality evaluation of the fruit is made when it arrives at the CANSO packaging facility. “There are difficulties with the leaves having contact with the fruit and it is difficult to find a fruit free from this problem,” says José Ignacio Juarez González of Anecoop. “This is why it is difficult to introduce the product to the UK. But even with this, the fruit is still becoming popular in Europe.”
Juarez González is convinced that the firmer persimmon is the key to the UK market. “The CO2 treatment neutralises the tannins in the fruit and removes that strong taste of unripe fruit,” he says. “It also improves shelf life, produces a good eating quality and makes the fruit suitable for transport.
“We are beginning to increase the crop now and will be able to produce the quality the UK market demands.”
The facility within the company’s grounds in L’Alcudia packs 200t of persimmon a day in season and puts the fruit through various quality and taste tests, before and after the CO2 treatment. The fruit is separated into three different qualities: export quality, domestic market quality and the remainder is sold as animal feed. “Morrisons has received large volumes from us so far, but we will hopefully work with three more large UK retailers this year,” says Juarez González.
The Costa Tropical Denomination of Origin is also aware that the Spanish cherimoya industry has a long way to go before the UK market fully embraces the fruit. “We are trying to prolong the season to March,” says González García. “And we are working on a seedless cherimoya. We are aware that we need to be more innovative.”
PERSIMMON A FAVOURITE AT MARKET
The Mercado Central market, in Valencia, was full of fruit and vegetable stalls selling both cherimoya and persimmon. A firm favourite with the market’s customers, the Spanish exotic fruits were displayed side by side, along with small punnets of the unhardened persimmon.
Fruit business, Monz, was established 1938 and employee Maria José (pictured) has been with the company for 24 years. She says she has seen a change in customers’ attitudes. “We have been selling more of the hard variety over the last three to four years,” says José. “People prefer them because they can eat them like apples.”
