On Friday 3 August, WPTC released a new update on the ongoing 2018 tomato processing season following its fortnightly survey of members.
AMITOM members in the EU
In
France, the harvest started two weeks ago in the south-east (week 29) and c. 9,000 tonnes had been processed as of 28 July. Farm yields and quality are good, with high brix. Harvest started slowly this week in the south-west (week 31). The outlook looks good despite some localized blight and there are no changes to the forecast.
In
Greece, the factories in the south started early in July and almost all factories in central Greece started last week but some in the north have yet to open. 60,000 tonnes have been processed to date. The weather is unstable with a succession of rains which do not have any major impact on the harvest. The peak will arrive at the beginning of August. It is not a very good season with lower brix and lower volumes than expected. The forecast is maintained at 360,000 tonnes.
In
Hungary, there is no change in the estimated volume. The harvest will start at the beginning of next week. Everything looks like expectations.
In
Italy, most of the factories in the North are now open. The colour and brix of the fruits is good, but the consistency is poor (soft fruits). The forecast remains unchanged at 2.4-2.45 million tonnes. In the Centre and South, several factories started last week, and all will be opened by the end of this week. Quantities are now normal mainly from the Campania region with Puglia starting slowly with some delay and will reach full level by the end of this week. The quality of the fruits is good with better brix than last year and normal colour. A heatwave is starting but temperatures should not get too high. There is no change in the expectations so a total forecast of 4.75 million tonnes is maintained for Italy.
In
Portugal, there is no change from the last forecast. The harvest is expected to start slowly with the first factories opening on 10 August.
In
Spain, the harvest looks good but it is late and has just started in Andalucía and will only concern higher volumes from next week. A few factories are already starting in Extremadura this week, very slowly with low capacity lines, but most of them will start next week. The weather up to now has been cooler than usual with some humidity in the morning which has favoured the development of mildew. A heatwave, however, is now starting and should last for the next week with temperatures expected to be between 40 and 45 °C during the day and not to go down below 25°C at night. In Navarra, the harvest will only start slowly from 15 August and only reach full capacity in September. The forecast remains 2.6 million tonnes but will largely depend on September weather.
Other AMITOM members
In
Tunisia, the harvest started during the last week in June and 438,000 tonnes had been processed by 30 July. All the 26 factories are currently running. The harvest is nearly finished in the Cap Bon, Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid regions, and factories currently get tomatoes mainly from the Centre region of Gafsa and North-East region of Jendouba. The season is relatively spread compared with last year.
In
Turkey, the processing is starting to speed up with the harvest in the south nearing its end and starting in the north. There is a shortage of tomatoes which is reflected in the spot prices which are very high, last week at 540 TRY/tonne and now up to 650 TRY/tonne (c. 110 €/t at today’s rate), much higher than pre-season contract prices (initially c. 360 TRY/tonne). Fruit quality is poor with low brix. The weather is unstable with many showers. It is a difficult season and the forecast is revised down to about 1.3 million tonnes.
In
Ukraine, the latter half of the July was not so fair. It was raining with some hailstorms every day and everywhere in the country. Temperatures were below 27 degrees Celsius, so the maturation slowed down. Some of the fields are now having the disease pressure due to the previous humid conditions. However, field inspections didn’t reveal serious harm to tomatoes. Since the beginning of this week, the summer weather has returned. Several factories have already started processing and we expect to reach full processing pace by the middle of the August. The quality of the first tomatoes is satisfactory. No essential remarks are reported. The forecast remains unchanged at 750,000 tonnes.
Other WPTC countries
In
Brazil, ABRATOP officials report that the surface planted in 2018 is 15,900 hectares and the volume expected is 1,32 million tonnes. To date, about 15% of the volume has been processed. The climate has favoured, so far, both the development of tomatoes as well as the crops in the three main producing regions (Goias, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states). No pest or significant disease occurred in tomato crops. The consumption of tomato products is returning to normal but slowly and gradually in Brazil.
In
California, the estimate is to process 1,149,099 short tons (1,042,355 metric tonnes) for this week.
At the end of this week (August 4), the industry will have processed approximately 3,093,334 short tons (2,805,922 metric tonnes). Overall early fields are slightly above contract so far this season. As we move into the central part of state yields appear to be close to contract. To date solids are running below historical averages at this time. The overall quality of the crop has been very good this season.
While in the
US Midwest, there is really no changes from the last report. The harvest will start the second week of August and the crop still looks strong even with some dry areas in Michigan and Ohio.
In
Canada, at this point, tomato crop is on target to achieve earlier projected tonnage. Dry conditions reported earlier have been helped by recent rains. Harvest is expected to begin in Ontario between August 14 and 20.
In
China, some factories began processing in this week. Current weather conditions are good and everything is going through well.
In
Japan, the crop update for 2018 remains 32,000 tonnes from 450 hectares.
In
South Africa, the situation remains unchanged.
