Traditionally, this period does not bring much excitement to the field vegetable trade. "This is not our time. People don't eat cauliflower at Christmas," says Robert Vogel of AGF-Direct from Zwaagdijk. "Supply from Spain has been somewhat limited in recent weeks due to cold weather, which has also caused some quality issues. However, temperatures are now improving, and supply is expected to normalize after the new year."
One product that consistently sees increased demand during the Christmas season is chicory. "There's always extra interest in chicory around the holidays. Especially the small 'ham and cheese chicory' trays sell well at this time. We also sell a fair amount of red chicory to hotel and catering wholesalers, but in day-to-day trade, I think sales are still a bit underwhelming," Robert notes.
Chicory prices were high this year due to shortages. "The extremely high prices have now dropped. In Belgium, prices have even plummeted to levels we haven't seen in a long time. Fortunately, we're not yet affected by this thanks to our fixed supply lines, and I think sales are still going quite smoothly."
"In general, we've seen good prices and good yields in open-field vegetables this year, but it's hard to draw broad conclusions because the differences between growers are significant. Some chicory growers had an excellent year, while others had a very poor one due to differences in yields. We see a similar pattern with broccoli, for instance."
For more information:
Robert Vogel
AGF Direct
Tel: +31 (0)85 30 32 633
[email protected]
www.agfdirect.nl