"What we all hoped to avoid has unfortunately become a reality for a number of growers traders after all," observes Mark Vernooij of Urfruit. "In a season where there have been plenty of opportunities to sell the fruit at very healthy prices, there have still been companies that were not satisfied and gambled on a better result. These pears are currently creating a somewhat unstable pear market. Through detours, they are now trying to find a customer for these pears anyway. This can be done purely on price and has caused the 'crate trade' to reign supreme in recent weeks."
"The established channels are categorised in terms of sales and supply and are well respected by most retailers. Unfortunately, there are also exceptions where customers at fellow companies have failed to honour their agreements. This piece of trading ethics is very important that it remains valued and honoured in the future. Without these ethics, we all end up in some kind of jungle, which we as a sector should not want at all," Mark stressed.
"Looking at next season, we have had some challenges with hail, this has largely festered. Nice to see how nature can still recover strongly. Of course, we also have plots where the damage is still quite visible. We are already busy finding outlets for these pears," says the pear trader. "In the Netherlands, we expect a slightly smaller harvest to comparable harvest compared to last year, though a bit fewer pieces (the estimate will follow at the end of July in cooperation with Deplhy, NFO and the GroentenFruit Huis)."
"In Belgium, expectations are somewhat less positive, here they expect a significantly smaller harvest. The reasons were the dark weather after flowering, hail, pseudomonas resulting in a very punishing moult. Europe-wide, the expectation is that the harvest would not be much larger than last year, this smaller harvest coming mainly from Spain and Belgium. Italy and Portugal, on the other hand, expect a significantly larger harvest compared to last year."
"We expect to deliver the first pears of the new harvest of the Corina variety in the first week of August (week 32). Following this, we will start Conference from our southernmost plots in Belgium. The harvest time at the moment seems to be another week to ten days ahead of last year," Mark concludes.
For more information:
Mark Vernooij
Urfruit
Marketing 45
6921 RE Duiven
+31 (0)575 472 473
[email protected]
www.urfruit.nl