Crop Report

We remain in regular contact with our growers as we monitor the after-effects of the storms that affected large parts of South East Spain.

We continue to monitor the development of crops, particularly aubergine, cucumber and courgettes. With these crops, particularly aubergines, there have been some challenges caused by the excessive rainfall and high humidity, most notably a potential impact on shelf-life.

We will maintain a close watching brief on salad varieties, as the next fortnight could see some issues with quality and availability caused by the impact of the storms. However, we are in the fortunate position of having a number of Spanish salad growers and are working with them to minimise the impact on our customers.

As we approach the end of the Dutch glasshouse season, strawberries are now in very short supply. Moroccan fruit has been delayed by around a week from when it was expected, so we are likely to see some significant pressure on market availability. We are working with suppliers to try to minimise the impact on customers, but availability will be limited this week.

While there are market-wide shortages on strawberries, other berries are not affected in the same way and could potentially be used as a short-term alternative. 

November has seen some poor weather and low light levels which has had an impact on the tomato crop. Mainland Spain remains behind, but we are working with our suppliers in Morocco and the Canary Islands to cover the Spanish shortages. 

There have been some minor issues with early season product arriving from Canary Islands over-ripe. This is quite common at this time of year where crops are ripening quickly after not being quite ready to pick. This already appears to be improving and is expected to be a short-term issue. 

There have been some early season challenges with cantaloupe melons, which is affecting market availability. 

We are working with suppliers and will need to utilise concessions to manage availability, which will mean larger fruit being used to cover some lines. We anticipate requiring the concessions for around a week or so.

Green Batavia and Little Gem were the two varieties most impacted by the hailstorms in Spain. While the volume of Little Gem grown means that the crop is returning to normal, Green Batavia remains an issue.

We are hopeful that new Batavia fields will be harvested by the beginning of next week which will ease the situation. However, until then it will be exceptionally challenging.

There are currently no major availability issues with potatoes. However, we do expect to see some problems with salad potatoes and large bakers later in the year and will keep customers updated as the season progresses.

There have been some intermittent quality issues across the market, but we are working with our growers to minimise the impact on customers.

Availability within the market remains quite challenging as the early season fruit from Chile and Columbia is taking longer to ripen to the correct specification.

We are working with suppliers and do not expect major availability concerns, although there are shortages across the UK market.

Generally, brassicas are in good supply and the transition to Spain from the UK has gone smoothly. 

Broccoli is the only exception, where there are some minor quality issues, particularly with yellowing, although this is expected to improve as temperatures drop in Spain.

Availability remains good and we are monitoring the quality issues across the supply chain. 

The situation with red chillies is improving after some challenges with the Spanish crop being slow to change colour due to reduced sunlight hours and low light levels. This has been exacerbated by high demand and the market remains very tight. However, we are managing the available supply and have avoided any major shortages.

While the Spanish weather has not been ideal for the CauliShoots® harvest, which has been subject to some quality issues, we are working with our suppliers to grade poor quality product out and do not expect any major issues.

We are expecting the market availability issues caused by the storms in Spain to ease at the end of this week, when the first deliveries of the delayed Moroccan nadorcott variety arrives. This should mean that by the start of next week, availability should return to normal. 

There have been some shipping delays on grapefruit from Egypt, which are likely to cause some short-term availability issues. All being well, these should be rectified by the end of the week.