2023-06-20 13:09:00
Despite the fact that there are still active greenhouses in Almería, an unequivocal balance can now be made of the winter vegetable campaign which, in the words of Virginia Artero, commercial director at Nationwide Spain, “has gone better than we thought in the start”.
“We might imagine the worst scenario in the face of all the product restrictions, the increase in customs prices, transportation, the crops that were losing, and incredibly high prices; in fact, in no campaign have such high prices for the products been seen. In this context, we thought that exports were going to decrease; and they have really done it in volume, both in Nationwide and in the rest of the companies in Almería, although we have all billed more”.
And it is that the volume of vegetables available has been less throughout practically the entire campaign, not only in Spain, recalls Virginia; “Also in Morocco, which is what has caused prices to skyrocket. Although these lower volumes have also meant that less work has been generated in packaging plants and warehouses”.
“It has been a very convulsive campaign that has made the entire sector in Almería very strong, but at a great cost for producers, marketers and exporters. In the middle of the campaign, expenses multiplied for farmers and they had to face an unforeseen rise in the costs of diesel, energy, plastics or cardboard, which has generated significant stress and uncertainty to return to produce next year.
“For us it has also been difficult and, now that we are already negotiating the contracts for next year, we see that there are clients and chains that have a certain reluctance to close them. This year there have been companies that had embarked on important supply projects and that when they have gone for product they have found the auctions empty”. And although production problems have been closely and inevitably linked to weather conditions, an uncontrollable factor, in addition to the economic factor, “not knowing if we were going to have product in winter, when it is supposed to be our strongest moment in Almería, has made us generated stress and a very important personal cost”, remarks Virginia.
“Today, the service and quality that we offer from Almería cannot be matched by any country, but do chains and end customers see that?”
The chains have found themselves this year “without a plan B”, just in a season in which in Europe the lights of the heated greenhouses were turned off because the costs of electricity made production unaffordable – in some cases to sell the contracted energy earlier and make profitable the inflationary energy moment–. “In fact, this year many chains have been looking at other supplying countries in which to buy to have a backup in the future.”
“The experience this year should open our minds to the fact that there are more exporting countries, Almería is not the only one, and that we must be more constant and detailed when planting and harvesting. If there came a time when the chains went to other origins such as Algeria or Turkey to supply themselves, we might even have problems of overproduction”, indicates Virginia. “Today, the service and quality that we offer from Almería cannot be matched by any country, but do the chains and end customers see that?”
The reality is that they also see the price, says the commercial director of Nationwide Spain. “We all have to row in the same boat, but it is complicated in a world where we continue to hold auctions. We might be a more stable province in production if we had more stable prices because, although the auctions do a great job, sometimes, by betting so high, the losses are also high; You have to think that the moment a chain is no longer supplied because an auction has gone up, that chain can turn to a country that ensures stable prices”.
“I think that there we have to be aware that the future of agriculture in Almería should be more of a cooperative type. Now with the problem of the Huelva strawberry we have seen that there are some misleading advertisements regarding the qualities and the way of treating agriculture in Spain, and the union is the only solution to continue defending a way of working that no other country can match . Because in Almería we are not the garden of Europe; we are the best orchard that Europe can have”.
For more information:
Nationwide Spain SL
POL. IND. La Redonda, Calle IV, 40
04710 Santa Maria Del Aguila, El Ejido
Almeria (Spain)
Tel. +34 950 483026
www.nationwide-espana.com
1687267314
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