AMITOM crop update as of 24 July 2024

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Sophie
July 27, 2024

AMITOM crop update as of 24 July 2024

Bulgaria

No data

Egypt

We still receiving a hot weather as the degrees remains 40’s 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 opens today. 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

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.

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 association)

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 favour 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.

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