Main producers of tomato confirmed their expected volume despite of the intense heatwave

that has been experienced in the past weeks mainly in Europe and in the US, but it may be

still too early to estimate volume losses. The concerns were raised by Italian and Spanish

producers where heatwave can cause flower’s abortion and other damage to the crop.

Same in California, growers have raised their concerns about the extreme heat but any

decrease in forecast is still too early to predict.

Portugal’s latest official forecast shows that the country will be having another good crop of

industrial tomato. The favourable weather conditions in the first half of the year have

permitted Portuguese growers to proceed with the timely planting of the industrial tomato

crop. It also allowed growers to fulfill plans from their planting calendar for this season,

which is a critical element for the crop’s success as it prevents blockages during the

delivery stage to the processing plants.

China’s growing season is going well, weather has been favourable and it is believe the

harvest and processing will go smoothly as planned. The estimated harvest and processing

in Xinjiang region will start in first week of August, while Inner Mongolia will start on around

10 August 2017.

In Australia, the 2016/17 season was a very difficult season. The average yield from

harvested area was 89.2t/ hectare, with 4.99% Brix. A total of 185 tonnes were processed

which was lower from the initial estimate and also lower from the pervious year which was

275 tonnes processed. The 2016/17 season came to a sudden halt mid-May due to the

heavy rain in late April resulting in approximately 112ha of crop being left in the paddock

unharvested. Average yield was approximately 100t/ha from crops in NSW, whereas the

average yield in Victoria was a 85.2 t/ha.