The persimmon was a marginal product for self-consumption that grew around the edges of the citrus tree fields until two decades ago. Today it is a product that reaches 48 countries.
“It also represents the only profitable new element in Valencian agriculture over the past 20 years”, Cirilo Arnandis, chairman of the D.O. Kaki Ribera del Xúquer explains.
The product has become the star of the Ribera del Xúquer (Valencia) and its production increase has not peaked yet. In fact, during this campaign, volumes reaching 220,000 tonnes are expected, a figure that is 7% higher than the 2014-2015 campaign. Future estimates talk about the fact that in 5 years time, with the new plantations starting their production, a volume of 645,000 tonnes will be reached.
Could a persimmon bubble occur? This has been a very popular topic for speculation, more so if possible when some fruits were left on the trees without being harvested at the last minute. However, Arnandis explains that “before this happens, we will strengthen our promotions in all the possible areas since it is as yet an unknown product, not so much for retailers, but rather for the end consumers. The truth is that it is a new fruit, full of good properties and the whole world must be told about it.” For this reason, the D.O. has very high promotion budgets. It has invested around 17 million euros since 1998.
Other parameters to be taken into account, on the positive side, are that the current product has a longer shelf life and can reach more distant markets in excellent condition. On the negative side is the fact that its trade window is 16 weeks long, from week 39 to week 6. “We have to manage large volumes over a very short period of time, as occurs today with certain stone fruit varieties”, Paco Borrás, sales manager of Anecoop explains.
Background history. In the middle of the 1970s in the region of the Ribera del Xúquer, a mutation of the Picudo variety with improved qualities appeared, which was called Rojo Brillante (Bright Red).
In 1994, Anecoop and two cooperatives from the Ribera started an organised marketing process of the soft type Rojo Brillante persimmon. At the same time, Anecoop’s R&D+i area started working to obtain an edible fruit with firm flesh, from which the astringency had been eliminated and which was later christened as Persimon®.
In 2013, the Supreme Court acknowledged the Control Board of the D.O. Kaki Ribera del Xúquer as having exclusive use of the brand name Persimon® for its marketing.
A crop that has transformed a region. The Valencian region of La Ribera, traditionally a citrus fruit growing area, saw how in a few years its landscape was transformed. In 1998, there were 33,000 hectares of citrus fruit plantations. In 17 years, the transformation is tangible and now there are only 26,000 left. The land has not been abandoned; farmers have changed their citrus fruit production to persimmon cultivation, with a higher profitability. In 2015, there are 10,500 hectares devoted to growing Persimon®, as opposed to the 550 hectares in 1998. “The persimmon crop has established the population in a region that saw how the traditional profitability of the citrus crop was dropping more and more and it has allowed a relaunch of the economy in the villages”, the executive from Anecoop explains.
Therefore, since 1998, persimmon production has been steadily rising, with a few incidents due to the weather, such as the frost on the 1st of May 2002, another frost in 2004 and three years of difficulties, from 2007 to 2009, when a fungus, the Mycosphaerella, shook the sector that had been predicting an important take-off. Research was started up and in just one year, along with a scientific journey to South Korea, the problem was resolved.
