Egypt has entered the European market with its peppers and cucumbers

Looking back, the entire sector agrees that Almeria's 2022/23 campaign had two very distinct parts. "The fall/winter campaign was reasonably good; we could say that it was 'significantly' good in winter. Almeria was very well positioned in the market, and the prices were quite good. But things changed in April," stated Antonio Escobar, the manager of Nature Choice.

"In fact, the spring campaign, in general, wasn't good because of an accumulation of supply and demand issues. In addition, prices were not great. Not only did the watermelon and melon not do well, but it wasn't the best moment for any of the other vegetables."

"In winter, there were no Dutch products on the market, and since Almeria didn't have that direct competition, it did quite well. That's not to say that Almeria had no competition at all. It continued to have competition from Turkey and Morocco; in addition, last year Egypt emerged as a producer of vegetables in general, but especially in peppers and cucumbers, and it's been very competitive in terms of quality and production," Antonio added.