Everything points to this campaign being again "an unusual and, according to our customers, difficult one" for peppers, says Arturo Gisbert of Nationwide. We cannot forget that "we've had 2 years of rising costs, and together with inflation and the water shortage issues, this has caused the prices which we agree at the time of sale to increase. Moreover, there seems to be more demand than supply."
"However, at the time of sale, we do not know how much truth is there in statements saying that the demand is so high that there will be shortages. This can spark situations of panic, which will often result in retail chains, wholesalers and the customers themselves running out of products or being left with a short supply, thereby putting additional pressure on prices and the supply."
"When it comes specifically to the acreage devoted to bell peppers in Almeria, the information I have from farmers' cooperatives and even from seed houses points to it remaining stable. As for other pepper varieties, such as the Kapia or Palermo, we have not produced them for several years. We only have a few lines of red Palermo for the United Kingdom, but in general, their production in Almeria has been declining because it has been moved mostly to Morocco."
That's precisely where a phytosanitary problem has been reported, affecting imported seeds, which has delayed the planting of Kapia peppers mostly intended for export to Europe, and that has led many producers to plant other types, as explained by an operator of the Moroccan industry.
Another major pepper producer, the Netherlands, has also reported phytosanitary issues. In this case, the bell pepper production is the one affected. "We are talking about an insect that attacks the root of the plants," said Arturo. "Contacts in the Netherlands told me that some of the acreage has been lost due to this problem, but thanks to the good weather they've been having, with plenty of daylight hours and temperatures reaching 20-25 degrees Celsius, the red bell pepper productions are expected to recover next week."
In Almeria, at the production level, the summer has been "challenging, and the first crops did not set well because of the heat. And although for now, we don't know how much of the area has been affected, it is true that the problems with Trips parvispinus persist. However, the Netherlands expects to be able to supply normal volumes until week 44/45, so there is still more than a month ahead for the production to recover."
