The drought will have an uneven impact on the shopping basket of local products, despite the fact that the consumer may notice certain price increases and less availability of kilometer 0 production, according to forecasts from farmers and distributors consulted by ACN. In fact, they expect this year’s fruit campaign to be, despite everything, better than last year’s, the worst in 40 years due to frost. “We are not looking for alternative suppliers”, explains the general secretary of the Council of Food Distribution Companies of Catalonia (CEDAC), Roger Gaspa. Catalonia is an agri-food power, and in fact, only 10% of fruit production is for local consumption, so Gaspa rules out shortages.
The ASAJA union anticipates that the effect of the drought on crops will have a minimal impact for the consumer, although it will be noticeable with a drop in local products on the shelves and, slightly, in prices.
“We are facing a catastrophic situation, where it has been possible to irrigate, so the crops will be saved, but in a meager way. We calculate that 70% of the cereal is lost, as it is a winter crop,” he detailed in statements to ACN the president of ASAJA, Rosa Pruna.
In this sense, it stands out that the water regeneration plants have made it possible to reach some fields in areas such as Vallès Oriental, while those that did not have a water connection made have seen the harvest being lost.
And it is that, in the case of wheat and barley, which is planted around November, the rains arrive late. The May water should have fallen in April, which is why farmers who planted when it was due have seen their crop die. Now, in addition, the rain is making weeds grow, and favors the proliferation of fungi.
“The big losers will not be the consumers, but the farmers and ranchers,” warns Roser Pruna, from ASAJA, who anticipates that products from other countries will be imported, such as grain from Ukraine.
In areas like Pla d’Urgell, the situation is also “catastrophic” and, despite the fact that it is too early to predict what will happen to apples and pears, it is clear that there will be fewer peaches and nectarines on the market and that they will be more expensive. The rains of the last few days can be key.
The director of Afrucat, Manel Simon, foresees less production than other years because the Urgell canal has been closed and the fruit farms that are reached from the Catalunya-Aragón canal, in the Baix Segre, have water restrictions of 50%.
In addition, given the uncertainty and “fear” of lack of water, the Segrià farmers have thinned this year “much more intense” than other years, explains Simon, that is, they have left fewer fruits on the trees for the that remain can obtain the minimum measure necessary for commercialization. This has increased costs, because more labor has had to be hired, and Simon acknowledges that this increase “necessarily” will have an impact on the final price of the product.
“This does not mean that the consumer has to pay more for the fruit, but rather that, throughout the entire chain, we all have to tighten our belts to assume this increase in costs and that the final sale price is only a few cents more expensive”, explains the director of Afrucat, who anticipates that the quality of the peaches and nectarines, as well as the cherries, this year will be very good.
With regard to apples and pears, it is still early to make a forecast of how the campaign will go in Ponent, since it does not start until the end of July. In any case, it is clear that with the closure of the Urgell canal, production will drop, since these crops are mainly concentrated in the irrigable area of ​​this canal.
“It is true that in Pla d’Urgell 100% of the harvest is being lost, but apples are produced in other parts of the territory,” says Roger Gaspa, who believes that the rains of recent days “could make the production is better than expected a few weeks ago.
In fact, the producers of the Denominations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications of the Girona demarcation assure that the rains have given a truce to the productions.
The president of the IGP Manzana de Girona, Jaume Armengol, explained to ACN that they plan to maintain the production levels they had in other years. The main reason is that they have been applying measures to optimize water for several years, such as installing drip irrigation or using organic fertilizers to maintain soil moisture.
Armengol considers that it will be necessary to “spread very thinly” with the use of water if it does not rain more, but he predicts “guaranteeing the fruit service” throughout the season.
“Supermarkets, we are 10% of the destination of the total production of nectarines, apples, peach… there is a lot of product availability because we are an exporting country,” reflects Gaspa. In fact, even with the worst harvest in 40 years, last year, there was “enough fruit” to meet customer demand.
“There is not a problem of shortages, we are not looking for alternative suppliers, and we did not do so last year either,” he adds, noting that if they are worried about something, it is because the fact of having lower harvests causes “international markets to condition the price.” .
Asked about the prices, Armengol also points out that a lot will be needed from the situation at the international level, and avoids making predictions. In any case, he considers that they will not change much compared to the current ones, because their production has been able to be maintained.
It is still early to assess whether the citrus harvest in Tierras del Ebro will be seriously compromised by the drought.
“It will depend on the rains and the restrictions on irrigation,” says the director of the Soldebre de Tortosa cooperative, Pere Albacar. In addition to the water from the canals, now limited, some have wells to irrigate. The calibers and possible losses will depend on this.
After a campaign with low production and also low prices, the prospects for next autumn are not bad, a priori. The summer weather, in this sense, will clarify the doubts. The concern, admits Albacar, is that the lack of production due to the drought could accentuate the supplanting of the zero kilometer product by imported citrus fruits that are already flooding the national market and causing prices to fall.
Prospects are not especially good in the olive oil sector either. Soldebre is the main Catalan cooperative in the sector. After having practically doubled prices in one year, going from 3.5 to 6.5 euros per liter due to low production and scarcity, the drought may once again accentuate this trend. Especially in a local product such as olive oil, with half of the world’s production coming from the Spanish state.
“We have no precedents for how the market will behave. We do not have any model. We have to wait, see what happens with the rains and hope that the price escalation does not continue because it could cause a slowdown in consumption,” says Albacar.
Regarding the DO Empordà , the president of the Technical Commission of the Regulatory Council, Antoni Roig, celebrates that the rains have reached the vines at the time of flowering. This has made them give producers “a breather” and they are confident that if another episode of rains like the one this week occurs again, the vineyards will be “within the usual production of recent years.” Even so, Roig believes that wine prices will not be set by the volume of clusters that are harvested.
Another of Catalonia’s star 0 kilometer products is rice. From the rice chambers of the Ebro delta they insist that it is still early to know how production will end in the area and if it will be possible to reach the entire local market, their main customer. The cameras have contingency plans since a few years ago, areas such as Andalusia, Extremadura, or even Italy, suffered the consequences of drought. Until now, as the president of the Montsià Rice Chamber, Marcel Matamoros, recalls, “they have been able to serve and supply all customers” and this is the objective.
In anticipation of what this drought can do and with water concessions in half, if they cannot reach their round rice markets in Catalonia and also in northern Spain, “they are looking” where to find and what is “the closest possible” than they produce in the Delta. The camera also exports for American and German brands.
For now, they hope to finish the harvest, and save a campaign that is being “very complicated.” On Sunday, for the second time, the water will stop again to the irrigation canal on the right of the Ebro. “The rice is very affected and this year the salinity levels of the Delta are very high because it has not rained all year. The samples already indicated a lot of salt in the soil. The rice dishes are not having a good time,” Matamoros recalled.
Bean producers from Santa Pau (la Garrotxa) are optimistic and “hopeful” as a result of the latest rains, which have allowed false sowings to make weeds sprout. The president of the Jewish PDO of Santa Pau, LluÃs Sunyer, explains that in a week they will sow and acknowledges that the fields are “very good” to do so.
Sunyer hopes that the rainfall will continue intermittently, in order to be able to plant plantations, since everything is never done all at once. And it is that last year’s drought caused the production to suffer and there were hardly any beans to take to the Sant Antoni Fair that promotes the product.
“If the weather is the same as last year, we will suffer,” explains Sunyer, who makes it clear that, even if there is low production, they will not touch the price. “It is not worth it to us, they are not made anywhere else,” he concludes.
