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- Sophie Colvine
- WPTC
WPTC crop update as of 4 August 2023
Amitom countries
Egypt
The heat wave created many challenges to the current crop as it could affect the field’s yield. We are monitoring it very closely and provide the necessary technical support to the growers such as heat resistance practices. The situation will be clearer in the coming weeks, as we are following the situation with the ministry of agriculture as well.
France
The plants in the south-east are all open, but the campaign has barely got off the ground in the south-west, where the last plant will open tomorrow, despite the forecast of occasional rain. Downy mildew has been controlled, but there are problems with noctuid moths on tomatoes and other crops in the south-east. The campaign looks set to be good, with good yields expected, and the forecast remains unchanged.
Greece
The temperatures are back to normal this week. The effect of the heatwave have been minimal thanks to low temperatures at night (c. 20°C). Factories have now all started and will be operating at full capacity from the end of the week. The forecast remains 430,000 tonnes.
Hungary
The weather is unchanged: regular rains without extremes. The plant protection thus is the key challenge later on in this season but until now that is manageable. Therefore the 100,000 tonnes yearly forecast remains unchanged. Unlike the Mediterranean countries, the season in Hungary can never start in July, but the start scheduled for 14 August is a bit late even in our conditions. However, the planned amount of raw tomato can be processed until the end of September without any capacity issue if there is less precipitations on the fields.
Italy
North – The first report from the OI Pomodoro stated that as of 23 July 26,300 tonnes had been processed with an average brix of 5% and penalties of 4.52%. The volume was mainly cherry and specialities. Last week, the main crop started both for organic and conventional but still with small volumes. Bad hails in Piacenza have hit many hectares of tomatoes but the consequences are still being assessed. More information will be available after a meeting with the POs on Friday. Temperatures are now back to normal and fruit quality is good with brix at c. 5°. No change to the forecast to date.
South – There is still no estimate to the potential losses due to flower abortions following the heatwave around 20 July. Yields to date are lower than usual due to the rains in April, especially in the Caserta area. Factories are all opened now but not yet at full capacity due to delays in the crop from Puglia. Full capacity should be reached early next week.
Portugal
The harvest started on 18 or19 July and is now in its third week. 14% of the forecast had been processed as of Monday 31 July. Some of the factories only started this week but others are already at full speed. After some hot days but with cool temperatures at night, the weather has been strange in the last 2 to 3 days with low temperatures and wind. It is too early to evaluate potential effect on yields. Quality is average to date.
Spain
The start of the campaign is good with the crop a bit in advance compared to normal with a start around 10 July in Andalusia where 20-25% of the volume has been processed to date and 20 July in Extremadura where 10-15% of the volume has been processed to date. A large peak of production is expected for the period of 10 to 20 August which will put pressure on the factories. Quality is good. Temperatures remain high at 38°C but in the norm for the season and with cold nights so are not problematic. In Extremadura there are some issues with spider mites and oidium.
In the North, factories will open next week but with an expected reduction in volumes due to storms and hails in July.
The volume contracted was higher than expected but season’s yields are expected to be lower than initially estimated so the forecast is kept unchanged (2.6 million tonnes).
Tunisia
Turkey
The crop in the south is about halfway through and all factories in the south are open. In the north, factories are starting with tomatoes from the south and will work at capacity when the crop in the Bursa region starts around 8-10 August. The fields do not seem to have been affected badly by the heatwave. Fruit quality is good, with brix at c. 4.9 and colour is getting better at 2.2-2.5. The weather forecast is good. No change in the forecast.
Other WPTC countries
Brazil
No change in the forecast.
California
The estimate is to process 739,882 short tons (671,210 metric tonnes) this week. At the end of this week (week ending 5 August) we will have processed 1,478,648 short tons (1,340,819 metric tonnes). Currently yields in the South are performing at or above contract at this point, with solids performing below historical averages. The Northern part of the State has just began to harvest and those factories will all be running over the next few days. The Southern factories are at or building up to capacity. After the last heat spell temperature has returned to more normal for this time of year.
Canada
No information
China
No information
Japan
No change in the forecast.
South Africa
No information
