Severe weather conditions in Spain, Turkey, and Morocco have put a damper on vegetable supplies. "There is really something wrong," says Pieter de Ruijter of 4Fruit Company from Ridderkerk. In Almería, for example, numerous greenhouses are underwater. "One cooperative had no power, another had no product supply, and the next had no staff to pack the vegetables. Everyone has had to cancel trade. Cars are flooded up to their doors, and many greenhouses are submerged."

The weather problems are not limited to Almería alone. In the soft fruit region of Huelva, the first greenhouses have already been flattened by storm winds. The field vegetable region of Murcia has also been hit hard. "Ice lettuce, for example, is not growing," says Pieter de Ruijter. "Growers have to remove many leaves because of water damage, leaving only a small head. But nobody wants 12'ers or 15'ers," he sighs. "That will eventually turn, though, because nobody can harvest 10'ers at the moment."

Morocco has not escaped the adverse weather either. Tangier port has been closed due to storms, disrupting exports from Morocco. "There are queues of more than 40 kilometres of trucks trying to cross to Gibraltar, but the roads are impassable. In northern Morocco, there are mudslides, and in the Strait of Gibraltar, ships cannot sail because of the wind," the importer says.

On Thursday, vegetable prices rose sharply over the course of the day. "In the morning, people still thought prices were far too high, but later many customers returned anyway, because they also realised that availability would be tight," Pieter says. Today, he entered the market with the following prices: 23 euros for red peppers, 26 euros for yellow, 25 euros for orange, 21 euros for aubergines, and 24 euros for courgettes. "And if customers think it is too expensive, they should simply leave it. There will be even less trade in the coming days. We used to say that gold can also be too expensive, but even that saying is outdated."

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com