Warmer winters hit Spanish kiwifruit yields

Mild winters are impacting Spanish kiwifruit production. According to José Piñero, director of Kiwi Atlántico, the lack of cold during the winter months resulted in Galicia harvesting its smallest crop ever last year, while this season is on course to be the second smallest.

Speaking to La Voz de Galicia, Piñero described last season as “an absolute disaster” for the region’s growers. “Kiwi Atlántico usually harvests between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes each season. The 2024 harvest, however, barely exceeded 6,000 tonnes, and the current one is on track to reach just 8,000 tonnes,” he told the newspaper.

The warmer winters means the plant can’t go into complete dormancy; instead, it remains active internally. As a result, when it’s time to sprout, it lacks the strength and doesn’t sprout properly,” Piñero explained.

According to Piñero, kiwifruit cultivation is also affected by other atmospheric phenomena, such as hailstorms, unseasonal frosts, or even rain during bud break. Producers in other parts of Europe, such as Asturias, Portugal and France face similar problems, and there is little they can do, “because the few products we could use are prohibited in Europe”, he said.

The resulting shortage has sent prices “skyrocketing”, but this is still not enough to compensate for the lower production.

The Galician kiwifruit harvest begins in November and lasts for four or five weeks. “We harvest once a year. We wait until the fruit has the perfect sugar level and ripeness to harvest, and then we store the fruit in cold storage,” Piñero said.