Last year, the volumes of carrots in France were 25 to 30% higher than in a normal season. This year, however, is the exact opposite. The volumes of French carrots are supposed to be 25 to 30% lower for this 2023 season. The water shortage from June to September is the main reason for this limited supply.
“Of course, we have irrigated but irrigation does not replace natural rainfall, especially over a long period of time,” explains Emmanuel Schaffner, sales director France at Verduyn. “In the future, I am afraid that producers without an irrigation system will no longer be able to grow carrots, cabbage or broccoli.”
Lack of carrots on the market
Due to this year’s particular weather conditions, the carrots arrived approximately two weeks early, which is “never a good sign”, according to Emmanuel Schaffner. “There will be a shortage of carrots on the market. The last time we were faced with a similar situation was 3-4 years ago, but the situation was not even as bad as it is now. With the increase in production costs, carrot prices will be strongly impacted from January.”
Low consumption until now
Regarding consumption, the demand was relatively low until this weekend, when winter temperatures hit the entire country. “Consumption is not great, but sales were very good during the weekend. Additionally, because the offer is quite limited, prices were also decent. But of course, given the current soaring costs for producers, those prices were still not high enough. Carrots remain a cheap product, compared to other vegetables. But I believe, and it is a necessity, that the situation will change in the coming weeks or months.”
Good quality
According to Emmanuel Schaffner, the good news for this season is that the quality is good. “The latest rains have really been favorable for the crops, especially in terms of length and caliber, although the three months of drought have taken a toll on their growth. With less water, the carrots are also very sweet. For the moment, we took the first carrots out of cold storage a couple of weeks ago and we are very pleased with the quality. It remains to be seen if this quality will keep until the end of the storage period. This is the challenge of this risky campaign.”
For more information:
Emmanuel Schaffner
Verduyn
Phone: +33 321 73 14 14
Mobile: +33 (0)6 12 85 68 37
[email protected]
http://www.verduyn.fr/fr