Demand remains calm with the start of garlic cutting in the Castilla-La Mancha area, which joins the Andalusian area in the Spring garlic harvesting process. While, in the most advanced area, Andalusia, it has already been 10 days of harvesting and cutting garlic, this week has already begun with the uprooting and cutting of the first fields in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, the main producing area garlic from Spain.
The new President of the National Association of Garlic Producers and Marketers of Spain, ANPCA, Mr. Juan Salvador Peregrin, described the campaign as exceptional: “in general, the quality of early Spanish garlic is exceptional this year, with good calibers and very good yields as a consequence of the good development of the fields this winter and spring. Despite the fact that we suffer adverse climatic events such as the storm Filomena, garlic has managed to overcome snowfall and strong frosts thanks to the professional management of our producers, who have managed to develop the crop masterfully, resulting in this harvest of excellent quality. ”. Juan Salvador Peregrin, stated that he is facing this new stage with the aim of: “highlighting the cultivation of garlic in Spain, and claiming its importance at both a European and global level.”
The board of directors of the most important Association of the sector in Spain of producers and marketers, which brings together 15,420 cultivated hectares of garlic this season and represents 77% of the commercialized production, was constituted last Wednesday with Mr. Juan Salvador Peregrin (SAT PEREGRIN ) as President, accompanied as Vice President by Mr. Antonio Escudero (AJOESCAR SL), secretary José Carlos Arroyo (PROACO SL), treasurer Mr. Andrés Garcia (AG VILLODRE SL.), member Ms. María Moreno (QUINTAORDEN SL), member Mr. Salvador Castellanos (AJOS MASALMAR SL), member of Mr. José Antonio Corell (JA CORELL SL), member of Mr. Agustín Ortiz (Coop SAN ISIDRO EL SANTO) and member of Mr. Juan Blázquez (Coop SANTA MONICA).
In the analysis of the campaign situation and the evolution forecasts, they highlighted that currently field operations are scarce, because right now the markets are well supplied, so the expected new campaign has not found a market ” empty ”as anticipated prior to the appearance of this last minute stock. This situation is causing a certain calm in the market of origin that has been reflected in an initial price relaxation, but that is expected to be temporary as long as the stock that appeared at the last minute is being absorbed and the first items are ready to export to the usual destinations.
At this meeting, the opportunity was taken to launch the ANPCA INFO information system, an information system on sales operations in the field for its associates, and which guides them when carrying out operations at origin according to the different varieties of garlic that exist in the Spanish market. It also collects the evolutions of the campaign and the main characteristics of calibers and qualities.
In addition, this meeting was used to address the situation of the workforce in the sector, which was classified as slightly scarce due to the fact that the harvesting campaign in Castilla-La Mancha has been advanced this year by about 10 with respect to its usual calendar. . The labor used during the entire cultivation process amounts to 79.9 wages / cultivated hectare, which is why 2,169,760 wages were generated in Spain this year in the sector. Garlic cultivation is declared a social cultivation by the European Union due to the large number of labor employed during its sowing and harvesting processes.
DEMAND CALM AT THE START OF THE NEW CAMPAIGN
