The scarcity of apples has unleashed a campaign where companies felt tempted to save produce and speculate with it, but this is not the case of well-established companies with a portfolio of permanent customers
From Giropoma Costa Brava, the company’s manager Alex Creixell qualifies that “we have committed to a series of programmes with our clients, who expect a continuous supply throughout the season. Therefore, even though we might have wanted to, we couldn’t have done this. This is the type of action that is usually carried out by smaller companies that wait until the last minute to sell their fruit to earn more money.”
The commercial season, marked for all the markets by a shortage of produce, meant that in order to adapt the available offer, some sizes had to be adjusted, “although in general, and even finishing slightly earlier than we would have wanted, it was highly satisfactory.”
The company, which will close the year with around 30 million kilos marketed, has announced slightly lower forecasts this campaign due to heavy rainfall when the trees were flowering, meaning that they did not set well. This amount is estimated to be 5% less for some varieties.
In the absence of official forecasts from Prognosfruit, the executive is optimistic about the next campaign. “I think that Europe will have an average, but not plentiful, harvest, therefore I expect the results should be good enough for farmers to be able to continue investing.”
Although some companies are reducing their Golden productions, at Giropoma Costa Brava, this variety continues to be of vital importance, since “our market’s needs are focused on this apple and therefore we cannot drop below 8 million kilos,” Creixell admits.
The company, belonging to the Pink Lady club, continues to opt for variety exclusivity. In fact, it is immersed in a four-year expansion plan for Joya®, which will involve a crop area of around 50 hectares.
The company’s technological infrastructures were renewed 2 years ago, and currently the dynamic atmosphere rooms allow a conservation volume of above 25 million kilos.
