Contrary weather in Spain caused a lack of market gardening in shopping malls in some EU countries; export prices for vegetables are rising. The situation in the vegetable market in Europe remains quite tense.
Recently, there are unfavorable weather conditions in Spain. Nowadays it improved gently, but the nights are very cold still.
Southeastern Spain in winter is becoming one of the major suppliers of vegetables in Europe, but recent floods, rain and cold weather reduced the crop.
Vegetable suppliers feel shortage of products. Many countries export tomatoes and peppers from Spain. The trend is the same with other veg from Spain - cucumbers, eggplants and zucchini, but paprika and tomatoes - are the main position.
The deficit affected the UK in the first place, where the share of imported garden-stuff in the market is estimated at 50%, and fruit - 90%. Now the prices of exported vegetables increased by approximately 30% compared to 2016 year-end.
In the Spanish province of Murcia, the hardest in 30 years torrential rains seriously affected planting of pepper and eggplant. These regions of Spain in winter delivered 80% of vegetables consumed in Europe.
One of the companies - exporters reported that rise in wholesale price for tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers and zucchini. Iceberg lettuce exports dropped significantly, and some companies altogether refused to export it because its price has become too high due to lower offers. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of green-stuff, although, in many of the largest supermarket chains, the price of some exported vegetables from the beginning of the year has increased significantly. In some countries, wholesale prices of greengrocery rose to 50%.
Suppliers are already busy looking for alternative sources of supply of green-stuff to Europe, including the United States. Now a substitution to Spanish can serve Turkish truck, but they often do satisfy the quality specification, so many countries refuse to import vegetables from Turkey, even at more favorable prices.
Most likely, the shortage of leafy vegetables, including lettuce and spinach, will continue until the beginning of April. Yields of crops across the EU fell by about 40%, the return of greengrocery on the market will depend on the weather in southern Europe during the period from February to March.
