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The
southern region of Murcia, where most Spanish lettuce grown for
export is cultivated, suffered the worst floods in two decades
followed by its first snow storm in over 30 years in December
and January.
"This has been extraordinary, it's not normal to have so many
problems at once," said Jose Antonio Canovas, a farmer and
salesman in Murcia for Kernel Export, which grows, packages and
delivers a range of vegetables from cauliflower to broccoli.
The ruined harvest and subsequent shortage of produce has led
some British supermarkets like Tesco <TSCO.L> and Sainsbury <SBRY.L>
to ration iceberg lettuces to three per visit. The limited
supply follows a shortage of courgettes in Britain and supplies
of broccoli and aubergines have also been affected.
Vegetable production in the European Union has fallen to 60
percent of normal levels in recent weeks due to bad weather
affecting producers across the Mediterranean, from Greece to
Spain, Spanish exporters say. Spain accounts for around half of
EU vegetable exports.
Not only did floods and snow ruin crops, leaving lettuces ready
for harvest withered and battered in the fields, but the bad
weather prevented the planting of polytunnel-grown seedlings
which meant more delays to the next harvest of Spain's biggest
fruit and vegetable export after tomatoes.
"We have notified our customers that there may be production
delays in March because the planting of seedlings has been
delayed and in the rush to supply the market some crops were
picked ahead of time," said Fernando Gomez, general manager of
The Murcian Federation of Producers and Exporters of Fruit and
Vegetables (Proexport).
The production of lettuces, one of the most badly affected
crops, has fallen by up to a third in the peak winter months of
production when Spain harvests over 100,000 tonnes of the
700,000 tonnes it exports annually.
Production is likely to return to normal by the end of March or
the beginning of April, Proexport's Gomez said.
Many farmers in the area do not insure their crops. In a sector
with very slim profit margins of between 1.5 and 4 percent,
profit relies on big volumes. Higher prices have not made up for
the losses farmers have suffered.
Alongside the hit from ruined crops, the hiring of specialized
labor to work the flooded and frozen fields has also eaten into
profit margins at farms.
(Writing by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Angus Berwick and Adrian
Croft)
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