Tomatoes are in abundant supply, leading to price pressure as fruit comes on in a flush across a number of leading sources.
Wholesale market prices for round tomatoes have slumped, making as little as 200p for 6kg as product from mainland Spain, the Netherlands, Morocco and the Canary Islands coincides.
Exports from the Canary Islands have started slightly early this season, with fruit arriving steadily in the UK for the past six weeks. With a late finish to the Dutch season, this is causing part of the problem. One importer said: “The Dutch did not have a very good summer with their fruit and did not make a lot of money so I think they have tried to hang on later than usual to improve their fortunes.”
Temperatures and light levels in both the Canary Islands and mainland Spain have been good. The importer said: “Growing conditions have been ideal in both areas so that has accelerated production. Morocco has had similar weather, so they have plenty of fruit too.”
One category manager said that part of the difficulty is lack of information at source. He said: “In the Canary Islands, there are one or two large growers that account for about 80 per cent of production, but in Almería the 80:20 ratio is reversed and only about 20 per cent of production is in the hands of large growers, while lots of small growers account for a significant proportion of the crop. This means it is hard to know how much has been planted.”
At the outset of the season, some producer groups were saying plantings were down for the early part of the campaign as growers were looking to concentrate on later season production, but this may not be the case after all.
Nevertheless, importers are hopeful that balance will return to the market shortly. One told freshinfo: “The position should clear in the next week to 10 days as the Dutch will be completely out of the market and we will be through this flush of availability from other sources. Supplies will then start to be more in line with demand.”
