The ongoing Corona crisis is making itself felt at both the large and smaller fresh produce centers in Germany. This is also the case at Oldenburg's wholesale market: "There are still a lot of walk-in customers, especially weekly market traders and operators of regional farm stores are increasingly buying from us," says Thorsten Hinz, owner of Fruchtpartner Ltd, which is based there.
The slump in the catering trade has so far been compensated for by additional sales in the weekly market trade and farm stores segments. Hinz: "Sales in these two tracks have doubled or even tripled in some cases. Accordingly, 2020 was relatively successful in terms of sales."
Fruchtpartner Ltd has been based at the Oldenburg wholesale market for many years.
Surplus cucumbers
In addition to sales in the individual sales segments, Hinz also saw a massive change in purchasing behavior. "Due to the discontinuation of gastronomy, we had a considerable overproduction of cucumbers last year. From today's perspective, that will also be the case this year."
Salad cucumbers from the nearby Papenburg horticultural center: due to a lack of demand in the catering trade, there is also a threat of considerable oversupply this year.
Minimal demand for exotics
Meanwhile, other items are hardly purchased by Corona in these times. "Exotics are undoubtedly the loser of this crisis. A star fruit, for example, or other products normally used as decorative items in upscale restaurants, are currently tending towards zero sales."
For more information:
Fruchtpartner GmbH
Thorsten Hinz
Großmarktstraße 6 – 8
26127 Oldenburg
Tel: +49 441 3618960
Fax: +49 44 1 36 18 96 25
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.fruchtpartner-ol.com