July 17, 2020
“It is an opportunity in light of the loss of Brazil”, says Carlos Echeveste, of Frutaria
The Spanish plum has lost a large part of Brazilian market this critical year. To protect grapes from the pests, Brazilian import authorities demanded that Spanish plums be treated with methyl bromide, a chemical which is prohibited by European regulation. The Brazil is one of the major importers for the Spanish plums. More than 1,000 containers have been left stranded without any outlet orders to export, thus putting great pressure on prices, despite the fact that there was a more than 25% drop in production this year.
An unexpected demand from India has put the Spanish plums at ease. Due geo-political conflict between India and China, all the imports from China has been boycotted, and plum import is one of them.
“As a result of this event, Indian consumers are boycotting Chinese plums, among other imported products, due to the growing tension between the countries. People started destroying the product at the borders until it was no longer imported. For more than a week we have been receiving many calls from Indian importers who urgently need to stock up on plums,” stated Carlos Echeveste, the commercial director of Frutaria.
“China is the largest plum supplier for India, due to its proximity and low cost. After this popular boycott and the large production losses that Italy has suffered because of frost, Spain has practically become the only supplier for India,” he added.
The protocol for exporting Spanish plums to India has existed for more than 6 years. “We have been exporting to India for several years. This country has a potential of more than 300 million consumers with the purchasing power to buy imported products, such as our plums. It is an interesting market for the sale of plums of size 50 and up, exactly the same requirement as Brazil. This year, India was not very interested in Spanish plums because the Chinese plum was very cheap. However, the conflict between both countries changes everything,” stated Carlos Echeveste.
“There are very good maritime connections between the ports of Valencia, Barcelona, and Algeciras and the Port of Bombay in India. I think that this opens a door with great opportunities for the Spanish plum sector, which is in a stalemate due to the loss of the Brazilian market. In addition, other markets such as Dubai are also quite calm as there is no tourism due to the COVID-19 health crisis and Latin America is now going through the worst stages of the pandemic. The Hong Kong market continues to have problems due to political confrontations with China, a country that is being affected by the coronavirus again,” informed Carlos Echeveste.