By Daniel Lafuente
The cucumber takes up an outstanding place in the Almería horticulture, mainly by its noticeable international character. In fact, the main destination of this vegetable is the export, since more of the 80 per cent is adapted outside the Spanish borders.
Business. Behind tomato with a production of 998,000 tons and a volume of invoicing of 467 million euros and pepper with a supply of 492,000 tons that generate 394 million euros, cucumber is the third vegetable chosen by the Almería producers. Not in vain, the companies that operate in Almería commercialized 382,000 tons in the campaign 2007/08 with an economic quantity that reached 164 million euros.
The average price of this cucurbitaceous underwent a decrease of the 5 per cent, while the produced tons increased a 19 per cent, causing an increase of the value of the production of 13 per cent.
This conjuncture is shown in the crop surface. And it is that in opinion of the seeds companies cucumber surface can change considerably from a campaign to another one; sometimes between 300 and 400 hectares.
Within the range of varieties that are harvested in the Almería field, cucumber stands out with a share of production of 80 per cent. French cucumber is in a second place with a percentage of just 14 per cent and, finally, the Spanish cucumber with 6 per cent.
The reasons of the yield in Granada
The cucumber shows since the century XXI the privilege of being the vegetable product of the surface of Granada that gets more yield with 112,000 kilograms by hectare.
And it is that this cucurbitaceous is the vegetable more consolidated, with productive figures in 2007 of 251,000 tons, and keeps on leading over the rest of crops and zones of production although it has a decrease of 12,000 kilograms by hectare respecting to the last campaign. In spite of this slight misfortune, since the campaign 2003 it has not lowered of the 100,000 kilograms by hectare.
