Harvesting vegetables, condiments and mushrooms, find out all the information for June.

Northern vegetable

The spring leek harvest is about 20% below expectations. Weather conditions have had a negative impact on production. The link-up with this winter’s main campaign will be tense in terms of volumes.

We’re facing a complex situation with our peas. Although sowing is now complete, it was carried out a month late, which will delay the harvest schedule.

Our cauliflower plants for the first crop have been planted, and we’ll know more soon. We anticipate a loss of 10% to 15% on this first crop. The second crop will leave the nursery at the end of June for planting in late June/early July.

The winter spinach season is over. This year’s performance was mixed, with average results. For spring spinach, on the other hand, the situation was catastrophic due to the rains, which hampered sowing. In the end, sowing was completed last week, but only 70% of the surface area could be sown.

Weather conditions have caused delays for green beans, while zucchini planting is underway. As for carrots, 100% have been sown and we remain fairly optimistic about their development.

Due to bad weather, rhubarb yields are very low. The stems are small and too thin to be processed. Some plots have been abandoned and reworked to accommodate other crops.

Southern vegetable

The broccoli campaign is drawing to a close. We’ll have more information soon.

Bell peppers volumes are currently very limited as we await the new September campaign.

The zucchini campaign is shaping up well, with the first volumes due to be processed in the next fortnight. There’s still time to position yourself.

Fruits

Apricot production looks promising in most regions. However, some areas may experience mottled fruit due to rainfall when the fruit was still small. Given current fruit development, a better harvest than in 2023 is expected.

Rainy weather with little sunshine made it difficult to harvest red rhubarb and strawberries from Poland. Rhubarb volumes do not exceed 10% of last year’s volume. We are expecting the second harvest in August, but it will not be able to compensate for this deficit. Strawberry quality is very disappointing, as are volumes. With sunshine and warm weather due to arrive in the next few days, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a slight rebound.

Mushrooms

The Chilean yellow boletus harvest is still in progress. Sellers are offering their products as and when they can, as available quantities vary rapidly from day to day and week to week, as do raw material prices. The harvest looks better than last year, but demand is strong due to very low stocks in Europe.

Condiments

As for onions and shallots, the hectares committed are significant, the weather is conducive to steady growth, and to date, no difficulties are expected in making onion volumes available for the autumn. The real situation will be established in the autumn, but growers are confident.

For garlic from China, there has been an increase in the area planted, with a rise of around 10%. However, factories are not expecting volumes to exceed those of the previous year (N-1). This is due to the two severe cold snaps at the very beginning of the year, which disrupted the start of sprouting.

The Spanish garlic harvest is about to begin. We anticipate a productive season and will be able to supply adequate volumes.

In aromatic herbs, harvests are three weeks behind schedule in all campaigns. In Europe, there is a shortage of chives, while the volume initially forecast for other herbs is being met.

At the moment, we’re in the middle of harvesting dill, which is of remarkable quality. Upcoming harvests include watercress, sorrel and parsley.

Others

We will only be offering a very limited volume of asparagus from China this year, as well as some from South America. We can only advise you to position your needs quickly.

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Update on sea freight

Sea freight is currently under severe pressure, particularly for large imports from Asia. Freight costs have risen sixfold compared with previous levels. This trend is projected to continue until July, with no foreseeable slowdown in the short term. Market players are hoping for a stabilization after the summer break.