Cold weather, sky-high prices, and huge shortages dominated the news from Spain in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the weather has cleared up in Spain, but according to Thomas Bos (Thomasol Gestión), who has lived and worked in Alicante for more than 20 years, the price drop is currently going faster in northern Europe than in Spain. "We too are experiencing a falling price for many products, but it is not as extreme as in the Netherlands," he said.
"It seems like people in northern Europe are completely done with the high prices, but the current market prices do not correspond to what is demanded here in Spain," Thomas continued. "Now, it is possible to reasonably maintain the current price level here for the time being because countries like the Netherlands do not yet have large productions either. Moreover, Spain has more markets than just the Netherlands, so people are now more likely to look at exports elsewhere."
"The Dutch supply of products like peppers and aubergines will now increase. Among the other Spanish greenhouse vegetables, we see that the market for cucumbers has been extremely good this season. For peppers and tomatoes, prices have been very good for the last two months - and that week on week - but we have to remember that those markets were severely disappointing until Christmas when most kilos were harvested due to the extremely warm winter weather."
"We also saw extreme prices in field vegetables. A grower from Murcia I work with told me just this week that what he never thought possible was what happened last season. Meanwhile, the cold weather is behind us, and we are diving into spring and maybe even straight into summer. At the same time, there is a lot less cauliflower and broccoli available. Last year, these markets had such moderate price levels that growers were very cautious about planting, as well as due to extreme cost price increases. In other years, extra planting was done outside the programs to speculate, but this year planting was done with much less margin, which is why prices on the free market are still so high as well."
Transport-wise, Thomas says the winter went well. "We all learned a lot from the Covid period when there were big problems with the availability of cars, but that has gone well this year. With export volumes decreasing, transport prices should be adjusted a bit more to a more realistic level, but it seems no one wants to go down yet," concludes Thomas, who is the link between buyers in Europe with a direct link to Spanish cultivation. "Currently, we are already preparing for the melon and grape season."
For more information:
Thomas Bos 
Thomasol Gestion SL
C. Venta de la Remuda nr. 8
03560 El Campello
Alicante - Spanje
Tel.: +34 965 060 305
[email protected]
www.thomasol.eu