At Viveros Blanco they inform of the growth of the Maluma Hass, which is slightly earlier than the main avocado variety, Hass
A decade ago there was a boom in mango plantations, which this year is beginning to drop, and once again it is the turn of the avocado. To discover the trends being imposed in tropical fruits, we can do no better than visit the reference company, Viveros Blanco, the founder of which, Saturnino Blanco, who sadly passed away on the 14th of August, started working with avocados in 1972. His son, Rubén Blanco, looked after us during our visit to the installations that he now leads, along with his brothers. He told us that the demand for this type of produce is such that they have orders reserved from now until March 2021. And the fact is that the traditional production areas (Malaga, Granada), have been joined by Valencia, Huelva, Portugal and Morocco. “A week doesn’t go by without a Portuguese client arriving for plants”, Blanco states. Along with the star variety Hass, the demand for others is beginning to increase, such as the Maluma Hass, which is earlier (harvesting starts in November), highly productive and with a dwarf size and a more intensive framework, which is added to a fruit with more pulp and a smaller stone. In the case of mangos, Osteen continues to reign, although Blanco recommends opting for late alternatives such as Keitt and Palmer to move out of the production peaks and obtain better prices. For those who opt for a gourmet clientele there is Irwin, early and full of flavour.
Regarding what is to come, Blanco believes that “the next booms that we will see will be in litchi and longa. Pecans are also on the rise at the expense of olives and macadamia nuts in the Malaga region.”
Water is a restricting factor for the production of tropical fruits. However, there are other fronts opening up: “the exploitations must be modernised, implementing irrigation system such as integrated dripper and using different rootstock, which are more productive and require less alternation than those used in previous times,” Blanco advises.
His company offers personalised assessment to producers. Regarding their working methods, they opt for plant cloning, a technique with which they are improving existing rootstock. “The future involves obtaining cloned rootstock that grow in more soil types and that have more characteristics than the current ones.”
Viveros Blanco’s production has increased by 45% over the past 5 years. For this reason, they have extended their installations with a new greenhouse that allows them to take care of the increase in demand. Each year they produce around 120,000 avocado plants and 40,000 mango plants.
In 5 years they have increased their production by 45%
