Prices for peppers soared this week as supplies from Almeria continued to be disrupted by the recent discovery in Germany of an unauthorised pesticide on crops.
Five kilos of Spanish mixed peppers fetched 1400p at Liverpool wholesale market and similar prices were seen at markets across the UK. Some suppliers flew in Israeli product, which commanded as much as 1800p a box.
The shortage is due to the discovery of the active substance methyl-isofenphos on peppers from Almeria, thought to have been detected by German authorities in mid-November last year.
In what it is calling an “urgent contingency plan”, implemented in late December, the agriculture and public health authorities of the regional government of Andalusia now requires that all peppers from the area destined for export have a certificate of negative results for methyl-isofenphos and other non-authorised products.
Authorities immobilised 24 tonnes of peppers at the end of last year and 37 growers are under investigation in connection with the contaminated samples. Some 44 greenhouses were closed from December 29-30 and samples taken. Of all the samples tested, only one positive case has been identified, the Spanish Embassy told FPJ.
The Spanish authorities stress that there has been no danger to human health but are taking punishment for using the pesticide very seriously, threatening significant fines and even a custodial sentence for those convicted of exporting contaminated peppers. The certificate of negative results is likely to be required for the rest of the season.
A spokesman from the Spanish Embassy told FPJ that guilty parties are likely to face permanent closure.
Many have temporarily halted exports. One source told FPJ: “There are a lot of people not picking peppers. In Spain the cooler temperatures mean they can pick peppers as much as every 10 days apart, so regardless of whether the individual grower knows for sure if he has used [the pesticide] or not, the packhouses are so nervous that the bulk of them have said, ‘we’re not risking this, we don’t want to get a bad name, we’re not having any peppers’.
“Packhouses are saying, ‘if you’ve got green peppers on the plant we don’t want any, don’t bring them in - we’ll let our customers go short. Leave them on the plant for two or three weeks and then they’ll go red. Then we’ll do residue testing. We have to be 100 per cent sure’.”
Some believe the disruptions could continue for the rest of the Spanish season.
Methyl-isofenphos is a little-known treatment used to control thrips and, according to a counsellor for agriculture at the Spanish embassy, is thought to have originated from China.
The Spanish authorities said they were “unaware of its existence” and that its discovery on Spanish peppers had “come as a surprise”.
Weather-related production problems have temporarily exacerbated the shortage, with mild conditions causing a glut of product to come out of Almeria before Christmas, which left plants tired.
Leila Zeroual from Zeroual veduras SL said the company was having major problems with quantities.
“The plants have grown more leaf than normal but the peppers themselves came on all at once and now we are without product,” she said.
“The situation will not change quickly as we are three weeks ahead of our programmes and we will soon be looking to uproot the plants as they will be past their best.”
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