The hail has left its mark in the Spanish stonefruit region Lleida. This is according to Gert Bouman of the Spanish private producer Frutaria. "The late stonefruit varieties have been especially affected, as well as the Conference and Williams pears, meaning there is a shortage at the moment and people have to search hard to meet the demand."
The current season certainly hasn't been without problems for the Spanish producers. "The season started well, but extreme weather conditions from hail to heat waves have caused problems. The insurers have been busy with this. The cool weather in Europe in July also resulted in weak demand, which meant people could hardly get rid of their trade," says Gert, Frutaria focuses mainly on Europe with their stonefruit, with Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia being the main buyers.
"Now it's common knowledge that there is a lot of late fruit on the market and buyers have to go looking for their parties, but the strange thing is that the prices haven't really found their way up yet. In eastern Europe the holidays are over and the weather conditions aren't as good, and many countries have their own production of plums, strawberries and other summer fruit," explains Gert. The company will continue to export stonefruit until the end of September. "But in much lower volumes."
