The constant rains in south-eastern Spain over the last month have taken a toll on the supply of open ground vegetables such as brassicas, artichokes, and, above all, leafy vegetables, especially lettuce.
“Between early December and early January, we’ve had many rainy or cloudy days,” says Jesús Abenza, Managing Director of Alimer, a cooperative based in Lorca, Murcia. “We’ve also had days of severe cold, which have caused production to slow down, although temperatures in recent nights haven’t been as bad.”
© Alimer
“We’ve had an unusual amount of rainfall in these production areas, and all open ground vegetable productions in northern Almeria, Murcia, and as far south as Alicante have been affected, with a more detrimental effect in the case of lettuce. We haven’t been able to plant normally for the last three weeks,” says Abenza.
Given the circumstances, there’s a limited supply available at the moment. “We’ve had a difficult week in terms of supply due to the impact of the weather, and the situation will remain challenging in week 3,” says the Managing Director of Alimer.
“We are not dealing with shortages, but we are forced to prioritize orders to be able to meet the demand of our regular customers, leaving hardly any supply for the spot market,” says Abenza, and he predicts “imbalances in supply between now and the end of the export season.”
Besides these circumstances, there’s also the added handicap of the ongoing protests against the EU-Mercosur agreement and the agricultural policy law in northern Catalonia and in France, with road blockades, as well as the snowstorms recorded this weekend in northern Europe, which could contribute to further delays in deliveries.
“The truth is that the aforementioned problems are making this season really hard to manage, as we are facing very worrying structural problems that are reminding us of the difficulties of six years ago, during the pandemic period. The high costs of production, transport, packaging, etc., and the pressure from large retailers to bring prices down to competitive levels have led to us losing a lot of our bargaining power in both purchasing and sales, and are putting profitability, which is becoming increasingly uncertain, in check,” says Jesús Abenza.
For more information:
Jesús Abenza
Alimer S.Coop.
Camino de Villaespesa, s/n. Lorca, Spain
Tel.: +34 968 460 812
[email protected]
www.alimer.es