At the start of the Spanish greenhouse vegetable season, Frutas Luna's Kees Havenaar predicted that this winter could be quite different, mainly due to many crops being planted late.
"That seems to be true for some products. The fall season was quite enjoyable. We started with high bell pepper prices, and cucumbers also started well. Bell pepper prices went through the roof in October, with boxes fetching €20+ each. But in November, the downturn began. Since then, those have been a complete disaster, and selling those products is hard. It remains difficult for Spanish products to compete with their southern neighbors," Kees says.
"Red and white-tipped bell pepper supplies have been quite stable all season. The market for both should pick up somewhat. I don't think eggplants are going to recover. It's very hot now, even at night. The growers continue harvesting, and I don't know when the Dutch ones will arrive, but when they do, it's over."
"Cucumber sales are steady with no strange outliers like other years. That's all due to the climate in Spain. If we have one week of cold in late November, you can be sure everything will be expensive in January. What is selling well are the mini-cucumbers. We have a nice batch we can pack in all our boxes and formats. It's the star product this winter," Kees explains.
"As for TOVs, this year is the reverse of the last two years. We knew it would be tough, but we didn't expect it to be this bad. We started with prices around €15 in December, which continued until the first week of the new year. Prices were above €10, but after that, it was game over. Last year, you could sell everything and more. The prices didn't matter; the product sold for any price. Now, it's exactly the opposite. We don't know how long this will last. We obviously hope not too long. Fortunately, we can still make slightly more with our Luna house brand, but it's not easy."
"We're not pessimistic about the spring, but as we're used to in this sector, every year's very different, and anything can still happen," Kees concludes.
For more information:
Kees Havenaar
Frutas Luna
Tel.: +34 950 178 653
[email protected]
www.frutasluna.com