Amitom countries
Bulgaria
Processing is going well with about 60% of the volume to already processed. It is one of the best years, with good quality and average brix of about 5, although a bit lower than the 5.2-5.3 expected. Recent lab analyses on fruits and tomato paste show no pesticide residues which demonstrates that the growers are following processors instructions. No change in the forecast.
Egypt
There is no change to the forecast. The summer crop is in its last stages, while the in between season will start mid-October. Planting for the winter crop is ongoing in the south and will last until November, for harvest until April.
France
TThe volume processed at the end of last week was 113,000 tonnes, 65% of contracted volume. Harvesting in the south-west has been hampered by the rain. This has also been the case in the Rhône Valley, but not in the Camargue. The quality is still good, but we fear that further bad weather could have an impact on how the fruit holds up in the field. Forecasts remain unchanged at present.
Greece
The south has practically finished while some quantities remain to be harvested in the centre of the country. Heavy rain is expected today and tomorrow and this may affect the final figure which for now we maintain. We will update of a better forecast as soon as possible.
Hungary
Last weekend processing was stopped due to significant rains, but the rest of tomato can arrive within a few days because more than 90% of the crop was already processed. The annual forecast remains 115.000 tonnes.
Iran
Harvesting is continuing and it has started in the north. The weather is good, and all factories are currently processing. Overall, there is about a 2 to 3 weeks delay in the harvest to due power cuts and disputes on price of tomatoes so the total volume may be lower than the 1.5 million tonnes expected.
Italy
In the north, as of 8 September, only 1.93 million tonnes had been processed with an average brix of 5.06 and penalties of 4.9%. This volume is much lower than normal. It rained last week and this week with some interruptions in the harvest. Moreover, the surfaces planted for the late crop are having lower yields than expected so the forecast is reduced at about 2.5-2,55 million tonnes, but it will depend on the weather conditions that for now are not good for the late crops.
At the same date in the South, a volume of 2.49 million tonnes had already been processed, in advance to the schedule and the target will be achieved before the end of September. Some factories already closed, some others are running but with low speed and for industrial products. The harvest should finish first week of October probably with higher volumes than expected that will compensate partially the lack of volume in the north, which means that the total forecast for Italy could be maintained at 5.4 million tonnes for now.
Portugal
The weather has been unstable all spring with some warm days but other cold, cloudy, windy and some rain. At the end of March, many fields were too wet which delayed transplant for 2 weeks. Planting started then in the second week of April on a more regular basis. Since that time until today we are about 54-56% of the surface planted, with some transplants which had waited too long in the nurseries. Plant development in fields is slowed by the low temperatures but for now is good during the transplant phase. The forecast is unchanged.
Spain
As of 16 September, 84% of the total forecast had been processed.
In Andalusia, the last factory is closing tomorrow, and the total production is slightly lower than forecast.
In Extremadura, factories are also starting to close in the Vegas Altas, with the last ones expected to finish next week, while in the Vegas Bajas where the crop is delayed, processing should continue until the first week in October. The weather in both regions is currently good, but some rains are forecasted for the next days and next week
In the North, the harvest is delayed, notably due to a week of intense rains, and harvest should continue until the end of October, and may the first week of November.
The overall forecast is increased to a possible 2.9 million tonnes if weather doesn’t interfere much in the next few weeks.
Tunisia
The harvesting season is nearing its end with a total of 974,000 tonnes processed as of 15 September.
Turkey
The Southern areas are finished with the harvest completely now and the Bursa area is coming into the final week of harvest. There have been a few cases of rainfall days apart from each other which has slowed down the harvest and caused a drop in the quality of the final ripe tomatoes.
The Konya has started and is slowly picking up the volumes. It is too early to comment on the quality of this area.
We retain our initial forecast.
Ukraine
Since the last update on 9 August, there were 147 air alerts on the South of Ukraine (an average 4 attacks per day). Unfortunately, Russian missiles hit our infrastructure 20 times, main targets were energy and agri logistics. Nevertheless, to date Ukraine processed around 52% of budgeted volumes (312,000 tonnes). Solids in fresh tomatoes were higher than usual with lovely 5.3 brix on average, but field yields were lower than expected. Factory yields and paste quality are good.
September started with rains this caused some interruptions with harvesting and processing. Now the weather is fine and stable. We would like to reduce the forecast down to 550,000 tonnes. Processing should last till 20th October.
Other WPTC countries in the Northern Hemisphere
California
The estimate is to process 872,652 short tons (791,657 metric tonnes) this week. At the end of this week (week ending September 21) we will have processed 9,354,578 short tons (8,485,806 metric tonnes). The high heat that was experienced in June and July is starting to show its impacts in the later part of the season. We are seeing split sets which bring mixed maturity and smaller tomato sizing. This will continue to impact the yields for the remainder of this season. The current estimate for the crop is close to 11 million short tons (9.98 million metric tonnes).
Japan
Due to the effects of typhoons and heavy rains that occurred from late August to early September, harvest volumes in parts of the Tohoku region have decreased. The forecast is now reduced to 28,000 tonnes.
Other WPTC countries in the Southern Hemisphere
Brazil
There is no change to the forecast. There have been no problems with the weather until now and no rain is expected until mid-October. No special issues with diseases. Higher than expected brix and good colour.
South Africa
The South African season ended 2 weeks earlier than expected at 140,000 tonnes delivered to processors. This is 12,5% lower than the planned volumes for 2024, due to mostly above normal climate variations in the winter production areas. The summer production area was on schedule and with an average brix of above 5.5.
