The Protected Designation of Origin intends to maintain its presence in Europe, its main market, and guarantee supplies to the customers who support the product’s sales year after year, even if this means reducing its presence in other destinations.
Cirilo Arnandis, President of the PDO, is clear: in a short season, Europe comes first. “Where we cannot afford to fall short is Europe,” he says. The aim is to retain traditional customers and consumers and keep persimmons on the market for as long as available production allows.
Particularly severe hail damage
The reduction is mainly due to severe hailstorms in the production area. Arnandis explains that, unlike in other years, damage has been particularly intense in certain areas, with some plots suffering losses of up to 100%.
Initial estimates put production in La Ribera below the levels of a normal season, with volumes potentially falling below 200–225 million kilos.
The impact is particularly significant given the importance of this area within Spanish production. Ribera del Xúquer accounts for around 93% of Spain’s persimmon production, meaning that any major weather event has a direct impact on overall product availability.
The smaller crop could lead to some improvement in prices at origin as a basic consequence of supply and demand, particularly after years in which production costs have continued to rise while prices have not always kept pace.
Lower volumes do not mean lower quality
The smaller crop will have another consequence: more fruit will be affected aesthetically and, therefore, a larger volume will fall outside the standards required by the PDO. However, this will not mean lowering the quality standards of persimmons marketed under the Ribera del Xúquer label.
Arnandis stresses that the PDO only certifies products that meet its established standards. “The Designation of Origin has only one category,” he points out.
This, he argues, is precisely one of the main values of the quality label: consumers who find Ribera del Xúquer persimmons on the shelf should receive the same standard of product regardless of whether the crop is abundant or limited.
There will therefore be fewer kilos available, but not a lower-grade product under the PDO. Selection will be even more stringent precisely because quality is the raison d’être of the designation.
Europe before emerging markets
The situation also requires a review of the export strategy. In recent years, the PDO had been working to open up markets outside Europe in order to diversify destinations and ease pressure on its traditional market. This season, however, the situation is different.
With less product available, the priority will be to supply established European customers. The PDO acknowledges that availability may be lower for certain emerging destinations, but it does not intend to abandon Europe in order to serve other markets.
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The reasoning is both commercial and strategic. European customers are the ones that have maintained consistent persimmon consumption season after season and, in a year of limited supply, the organisation considers it essential to protect these relationships. “If there has to be a shortage of product anywhere, it will be in emerging markets,” Arnandis sums up.
Oreto, extending the season
The Valencian cooperative maintains a research programme with IVIA, and this collaboration led to the development of Oreto, a new persimmon variety resulting from its breeding programme. It is earlier than Rojo Brillante and was specifically developed to bring forward the start of the season.
Arnandis explains that the varietal objective is clear: to have plant material in the future that can produce both before and after Rojo Brillante, thereby extending the availability of Ribera persimmons to six or seven months and avoiding the concentration of almost the entire supply in a single variety.
Research in response to the loss of crop protection products
The other major area of work is plant health. The progressive withdrawal of active substances is forcing the sector to seek alternative control methods for problems such as mealybug and whitefly.
Together with IVIA, universities, cooperatives and technical experts, the PDO is working on strategies including biological control, mass trapping and mating disruption, following models that have already proved effective against other pests.
For Arnandis, access to effective solutions is essential, as the lack of available tools is increasing costs and causing production losses every season.
The season will therefore arrive with less fruit and particularly stringent selection criteria. But Ribera del Xúquer wants this decline in volume to have as little impact as possible on the relationships it has built with its customers.
