Amitom countries
Egypt
The weather is still hot with temperatures remaining in the 40’s (Celsius) in average. The harvesting and processing of tomatoes are running normally. While the forecast remains the same as declared last time as we are monitoring closely the crop progress and climate conditions as well, we will see what will happen in the coming weeks.
France
Processing began on 18 July at one plant in the south-east. Another will start on Monday 29 July, and all the others will follow. In the south-west, harvesting will start in mid-August.
Summer is finally setting in, but there was some rain and thunderstorms over the weekend. Let’s hope they don’t continue throughout the summer, so as not to further disrupt input in the factories, which will already be disrupted by the delay in early planting, some of which will arrive at the same time as full-season planting.
Yields in the fields seem to be up to expectations for the time being, despite the mildew in the spring. However, we have noted the presence of moths, as was the case last year, which could have an impact on the yield of later plantings.
The forecast remains unchanged.
Greece
The last factory opened today (24 July). The forecast remains unchanged but the effect of the prolonged high temperatures (c. 40°C) and of some rains and hail yesterday in the Central region need to be fully assessed. More rain is expected today and tomorrow.
Hungary
In the first half of July the temperature was very high with heat records. Then on 17 July in the Kecskemét region hailstorm damaged several tomato plantations. The exact extent of the damage is being determined, but we can reduce the forecast down to 115.000 tonnes.
Iran
The very high temperatures of up to 45°C are affecting the tomato supply to the factories in the south of the country which could mean a 15 to 20% reduction of the crop size compared to last year, to maybe 1.6 to 1.7 million tonnes, but this needs to be confirmed later in the summer.
The harvest has not yet started in the west and north of the country.
Italy
In the North, this week only a few factories have started processing tomatoes mainly for special varieties (datterini and cherry tomatoes).
For the standard round shaped tomatoes the harvesting is related to some fields that had problems of excess of rain during the cultivation and the related yields obtained are very low.
Only at the end of July- beginning of August all the factories will open the gates for more significant volumes of tomatoes coming from early crops.
In the South, this week most of the factories are starting up for round varieties in Caserta’s area. The yield is good as is the quality. Towards the end of the week Puglia will also start with the long varieties.
At the moment the main concern is the water availability of the Occhito dam which serves an important area around Foggia.
Portugal
The weather was good last week with temperatures of 28-30°C but they have peaked in the last three days to 41-42°C. They should go down back to about30°C from tomorrow. Although there remains a large difference between day and night, with 17-18°C, there is is a worry that there may be some flower abortion on the late crop due to the heatwave. Very small volumes are processed this week in one factory, but all should open between 30 July and 5 August. The forecast remains unchanged.
Russia (temporarily out of organization)
No data
Spain
In Andalusia, the first factory has started at the beginning of this week. Weather has been cooler than usual in June and first half of July but lately we have had a week with temperatures about 42-43ºC which are accelerating the crop.
In Extremadura, the situation is pretty similar. The first factory is starting today, most will start beginning of next week. Last days of high temperatures are accelerating the ripening and factories expect to be running at full capacity pretty soon.
High temperatures and dry weather are starting to favor the development of plagues (spider, etc.). They may also cause some flower abortion in very late tomatoes. Crop in general looks good.
As transplant was late in Extremadura, and it was some concentration of transplanting at the end of April, it is expected a peak of production at the end of August that could compromise factories absorption.
Tunisia
As of 21 July, 20 processing units were in operation, supplied mainly with fresh tomatoes from the north-west of the country. A total of 660,000 tonnes of tomatoes have already been processed, broken down by region as follows:
• 44% in Cap Bon
• 15% Greater Tunis
• 26% Béja and Kef (north-west)
• 15% Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid (South)
Turkey
The harvest is well underway in the south where all factories are now at full capacity, especially as there is some bunching of the crop between areas. In the northern area of Bursa factories should open during the first wee of August. The weather was very hot and humid in the last ten to fifteen days, but it is now cooler. The crop was not affected and looks good with no insect or diseases.
Ukraine
There is no change in forecast. The weather in July was very-very hot (up to 42°C). Now it gets more normal(ish) for this time of the year. Agronomists are afraid that late season varieties may have dropped blossom (impacts haven’t been calculated yet). No big problems with insects or diseases. Major concern in pumping enough water to let tomatoes develop further.
Other WPTC countries in the Northern Hemisphere
California
The estimate is to process 856,467 short tons (776,974 metric tonnes) this week. At the end of this week (week ending July 27) we will have processed 1,583,463 short tons (1,436,073 metric tonnes). Harvest started in the Southern part of the state on July 6 in some organic fields with the conventional harvest starting a few days later. Yields for the small amount that have been harvested to date are very close to contract overall (but lower than 2023). Given the hot temperature that we have experienced over the last month there is some concern about the crop later in the season and the impacts. We will continue to monitor that. Solids to date are performing better than last year also for the first few weeks.
Canada
The weather this season has been challenging, with above normal temperatures and periods of heavy precipitation, leading to a higher than usual incidence of disease pressure in some areas. The harvest is set to begin mid August.
China
Japan
All over the country, the weather is good compared to average years, there are few diseases, and tomatoes are generally growing well. The second half of July is the peak season for harvest in Ibaraki Prefecture, the major tomato producing area, and high-quality tomatoes will be expected to harvest. The total surface expected is 460 hectares for a total volume of 29,000 tonnes.
Other WPTC countries in the Southern Hemisphere
Brazil
Transplanting is practically completed remaining only one area to be finished.
In July we had the closure of transplanted work defining the area to be total cultivated in Brazil, and from the perspective in January we had a reduction of 10% or around 2,200 hectares less, due to climate issues as rain that delayed the schedules of transplanted and viruses that caused losses of areas already transplanted.
The weather from mid-April is favouring the development of plants and the optimism of agricultural areas from industries believing that we will have a good harvest in relation to the productivity and quality of transplanted areas from the last fortnight of April 2024.
A factor of concern continues to be the whitefly due to the conditions of lack of cold in the areas of Goiás is returning to have more elevated population causing higher costs for their control beyond the concern with the final of the Harvest which traditionally already has higher temperatures.
The harvest started during June with very low yields due to the severity of viruses reported in the initial areas. We wait for a better evolution and quality during the month of July, with full conditions from August on.
The current forecast is 1.671 million tonnes.
South Africa
South Africa planned for a 160,000-tonnes tomato season for 2024. The Limpopo province experienced severe black frost conditions in early July, thus reducing the crop forecast lower to potentially a 130,000-tonnes crop for the 2024 season. The processing season should end a month earlier by end September.
