Packing trade is relatively steady this week. Free-buy material is not needed on a large scale. Retail volumes are described as flat. Some have even seen a slight draw back from previous weeks. Wholesale trade or sales for veg boxes remains strong. There remains a wide spread in prices based on quality and end customer.
The Scottish median prices' have moved up week-on-week. This is due to last week’s low end samples now dropping out of grade 1 and either heading for secondary packing jobs or processing. High end prices remain strong for premium packing jobs staying in Scotland.
Bags
Every week we are hearing of more chip shops opening their doors. However, these are still only running at reduced capacity and for takeaway only.
There is talk of a slight rise in demand this week for chipping material compared to previous weeks. This still remains significantly down on where it would be expected for the time of year though.
The bag trade is still awaiting a boost from coastal regions. It is difficult to predict when this trade could return under current circumstances.
Processing
Demand on the peeling front remains, but at low levels. Some material originally destined for French fries is moving into this sector of processing.
An announcement from McDonalds this week, that all drive throughs are scheduled to reopen next week, should hopefully help move some more processing material out of stores.
There is optimism that this announcement will encourage other similar outlets to reopen.
It is important to note though, that a significant amount of the processing area is grown under contract. Therefore such outlets will not necessarily result in an increase in free-buy movement. Nevertheless, it will hopefully help to get processing material moved out of store.
Exports
A range of material continues to move into both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Source: AHDB