tomatoes

The start of the 2011/12 tomato season in Almería, southern Spain, has been marked by a strong downturn in prices compared with the season before, with prices during September reported to be less than half those of a year ago.

Prices for tomatoes in the Andalusian province reached on average €0.40 per kilo last month, down from €0.90 in September 2010, according to figures from the Andalusian regional government’s price and markets observatory.

Andrés Gongora, from producers’ organisation Coag, told regional daily Ideal that prices were being primarily affected by the coinciding of the start of Almería’s season with the close of later seasonal finishes in France and the Netherlands.

However, he said prices in many European markets were still to recover from June’s E.coli crisis in Germany, which was also affecting the start of the southern Spanish campaign.

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