Spanish grower organisation Proexport has confirmed that supplies of iceberg will fall by 30 per cent over the next few weeks. The harvest is running two weeks ahead of schedule due to the clement autumn conditions in south-eastern Spain and there will now be a gap in Christmas availability.
Some growers are even warning the association that the decline in availability could be by as much as 35 per cent on recent weeks.
Laureano Montesinos, commerical director at the Fruveg co-op in Torre Pacheco said the situation has been compounded by a brusque change in temperatures. He said: “The sharp fall in temperatures at night in the first few days of Decemver has stopped dead plant growth in iceberg which has come togheter with the gap borught on by the warm November. It is a shame that low demand and ruinous pricing on the part of the major supermarkets at the beginning of the season has led many growers to abandon and destroy hectare upon hectare of their product. We will see the consequences of this situation in the last three weeks fo this year.”
Proexport reported that in November prices paid by co-ops to their growers fell as low as €0.05 (4p) a head.
