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S P A N I S H F R E S H P R O D U C E W E E K 1 2

Who said you could not use vegetables to prepare exciting dishes …The super chef

and owner of The Basque 3* Michelin restaurant Mugaritz, Andoni Aduriz ( from El

Bulli of course ) make one of the most appreciated salads amongst food critics. His

“VEGETABLES, OVEN ROASTED AND RAW, SPROUTS AND GREENS” salad contains 80

different ingredients, each individually prepared / raw, broiled, baked, fried, sau-

téed, marinated etc. Everything beautifully bound together with an Emmenthal infu-

sion and browned butter. All the 80 different

ingredients are placed with pincers on the

plate in a creative manner by the chefs them-

selves. They serve the salad only from May

to October and because of the high level of

difficulty in preparing it, they only make 8

to12 plates a day or simply until they are out

of creativity. The last and ultimate taste im-

pression of this artistic dish is no less than a

Brazilian berro de para flower!!

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Product Trends

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Total Produce Sourcing Spain S.A Calle Caminás 3, Bajo Izquierda. 46530 Puçol (Valencia) T: +34 961 95 84 17 F: +34 961 95 84 40

Artichokes: Last Friday most of the crop in Cartegena and Elche suffered from frost and that has already affected the prices which have gone up slightly. The plants will probably need another 2 weeks before they have recovered completely and can yield normally again. Asparagus: Due to frost in Granada, the aspara-gus has been delayed another 1 or 2 weeks. Avocado: The prices have increased this week and they will continue to do so the next week. Chile has more or less fin-ished and only larger sizes are avail-able. From Israel the supply is limited as well and most of the available avo-cados are larger sized. Broccoli: The supply has suddenly diminished to almost nothing and as is the case of Iceberg, many growers are closing down until the start of next week. Very high prices Capsicum: Very limited supply and the quality is very poor. The growers are expecting very high prices per kg and the fact is more than 60 percent are not good enough for export. Season has fin-ished much earlier than last year. New crop of Padròn available from Murcia (Cartagena) Carrots: The supply of carrots from the area of Cadiz is beginning to increase. Israeli new carrots are being offered on the Spanish market, but the Spanish is now beginning to be competitive. From next week there should be avai-lability of bunch carrots.

Cauliflower: Season has almost finished Celery: Very little green celery at this moment. However, there are available quantities of white celery. This variety is very ap-preciated in Spain and the prices in supermarkets are normally twice as high as the green. It has a much milder taste than the green and because of this and together with excellent nutri-tional qualities; it is a very used vegeta-ble in the infant diet in Spain. We recall that celery has so few calories that you will actually burn more calories than you take in only by chewing (normally) this vegetable.

Cherry: Trees are now flowering… Very nice

China cabbage: limited supply from Valencia

Viowhite 5 from Green-

house in Huelva the

16.03.10. A whine flesh

Stone fruit with expected

date of harvest around

the 15/20 April

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Total Produce Sourcing Spain S.A Calle Caminás 3, Bajo Izquierda. 46530 Puçol (Valencia) T: +34 961 95 84 17 F: +34 961 95 84 40

Clementines: There are very few Nadorcott available and what can be offered is mainly sizes 3 and 4. The very few quantities of size 1 and 2 are sold already at high prices. The quality of Clementines from Murcia and Almeria are of poor quality and we recommend to get your clementines from Valencia and Castellon. Cucumber: There are only few Spanish cucumbers now but prices are extremely low and many suppliers are considering sending what remains of the old crop for proc-essing. First new crop will begin next week. The supplies of organic cucum-bers increase steadily but are still rather expensive. The reason most likely, of these continuous high prices, is that the Dutch supply is even more limited and will continue to be so. New crop of mini cues starts this week.

Eggplants: Prices have mysteriously maintained a higher level than expected during this week. The quality improves and the sup-ply is increasing so prices logically should have declined this week. How-ever, there must be some kind of de-mand, as prices apparently also will maintain steady the coming week. Garlic: The planting of garlic for the coming season is very complicated. The inces-sant rain has made it almost impossible

to plant and they expect a difficult season. On the other hand, we have also heard that China suffers with rain and they ex-pect much lesser quantities from the Far East as well. Hence, expect high prices for the coming season….Some might claim that Spanish always have high prices but this year they should be even higher. Iceberg: As we predicted last week there is a seri-ous lack of Iceberg and prices have in-creased again. This situation with few Ice-berg will continue and now with serious quality problems. large demand for all sizes 10 -12-14 and since supply is limited the prices are very high. Many growers are not harvesting until beginning of next week. Kumquat: There are few kumquats on the trees and prices go up. We estimate that the season continues until week 14. Lemon: The Spanish growers continue to demand more for their lemons than the Dutch market offers so it is very difficult to export direct now. There is an oversupply, with many large sizes but it is still difficult to find the right prices. The reason as we have mentioned many times is that grow-ers have sold their lemons to many export-ers at high prices. Little gem: The demand is relatively high and the sup-ply is limited. From next week we will be ready with red little gem 8x2

Total Produce Sourcing Spain S.A Calle Caminás 3, Bajo Izquierda. 46530 Puçol (Valencia) T: +34 961 95 84 17 F: +34 961 95 84 40

Loquat: New crop from Malaga is only 3 weeks away. As always we expect very high prices for this very popular fruit in Spain.

Oranges: Last week we mentioned that demand had started to increase and this tenden-cy is continuing. Nonetheless for good fruits of large calibres they are still de-manding prices much higher than the market is willing to pay for.

Pointed cabbage: Demand is increasing and since supply is limited, the prices are going up.

Potatoes: There has been new crop of baby pota-toes in Seville for some time now and this Thursday the first new potatoes from Mallorca will be harvested

Zincal 10 a yellow

flesh Stone fruit with

estimatet time of har-

vest around 1 May

and in open area

around 15 May

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Total Produce Sourcing Spain S.A Calle Caminás 3, Bajo Izquierda. 46530 Puçol (Valencia) T: +34 961 95 84 17 F: +34 961 95 84 40

Romaine salad: The demand does not seem to slow down on contrary it is increasing and the quality is good. The salads are slightly lighter than normal but all leaves are perfect so no waste in this salad. Salads: Lollo rosso, biondo and Oak Leafs are all with very limited supply and most are sold on the domestic market. Export pri-ces are very high. Spring onion: Excellent quality

Stone fruit: This week they are thinning the trees of excessive fruits in Huelva and Seville. The harvest of the crops is delayed ap-proximately 15 days and sizes are sma-ller than expected. The thinning of trees should help to obtain larger sizes. With these perspectives, speculation has al-ready started that we can expect high prices when this season starts.

Strawberry: After one entire week without rain the fields have now recuperated in a satis-factory manner. The supply is still limited and there are not enough to meet the entire demand. The low temperatures are keeping the strawberries from ripen-ing and not until the temperatures will increase can we expect the prices to fall.

Tomatoes: Many tomatoes now with better quality and supply are increasing. In general, all tomatoes ( Kumato, cherry etc) show the same tendencies. The quality improves and the supply increases. Xanadu: A very sweet and crispy salad. The qual-ity is good and there are no problems with supply. Zucchini: Very limited supply and prices are still high although more steady now

Yelloe flesh peah Zinzal 10 the

16.03. Estimated harvest for green-

house around 1 may ( top picture)

and outdoor plants around 15 May

(2 bottom pictures)