So far, so good, for Greek stonefruit

After a rainy start to the year, dry conditions returned once again to Greece for the month of March. According to George Kallitsis of exporter Youphoria Fruits, the weather has so far been favourable for the country’s stonefruit.

“I think the number of chilling hours should be enough for cherries, and now the weather is looking good,” he said. “We are preparing for the cherry season in Greece, and then we will move on to the other stonefruits.”

The Greek cherry season kicks off toward the end of May. “It’s still too early to make fixed plans,” said Kallitsis. “Flowering started in mid-March in the early regions. Based on discussions with Spanish growers/packers, they expect to start harvesting early cherries in mid-April, with some very early tunnel-grown fruit already coming onto the market in the coming days.

“So the European cherry season looks structurally balanced at this stage. The key will be stability during flowering and the absence of extreme weather events, which in recent years have been the main source of volatility.”

Youphoria has entered into a commercial cooperation with cooperative Asepop Velventos, a major player in Greek stonefruit. “Not so much in cherries, but especially peaches and nectarines,” Kallitsis clarified. “They also have apricots and apples.”

According to Kallitsis, Asepop Velventos is more focused on eastern European markets like Romania, Czechia, Poland and Serbia, complementing Youphoria’s focus on Germany, Austria, the UK, Italy and Spain.

“For kiwifruit, Youphoria also sends to North America, as well as Brazil,” he said. “In the last few years, smaller volumes have gone to India and the Middle East.”

Despite the crisis in the Gulf, Kallitsis said three containers have been shipped from Greece to Saudi Arabia in the past two weeks. “As a company, we have not been affected so much because we don’t ship a lot to the east, and shipments to the US and South America have been unaffected by the situation. Of course, we have all seen an increase in the cost of fuel.

“There are not many shipments from Greece to the Middle East, just some kiwifruit and apples. So far this season, only 160 tonnes of kiwifruit have been exported to the UAE, which is around seven containers, so very small. For Saudi Arabia, it’s been about 40.”

Part of the reason for the lack of market penetration has been Iran’s historical dominance of the local kiwifruit market. So could Iran’s current woes create opportunities for those with fruit in stock?

“There is still a good volume of Greek kiwifruit left, with overseas shipments continuing till mid-April,” says Kallitsis. “About 20 per cent of the fruit is in storage, maybe around 70,000-80,000 tonnes. We’ve had a few requests for kiwifruit for the Indian market, but of course, nobody wants to take on the risk of the shipment, and nobody knows if and when the container will actually arrive.”