Which way the carrot market will go this year is still a big question mark. "At the moment it is very quiet. Exports have yet to take off," says Peter Rinkel of Hagranop. "The situation is opposite to last year. Now carrots for the fresh market are pushing up, while last year's carrots destined for storage went into the fresh market."
"Of great influence now is how big the harvest is going to be. The harvest for storage carrots has yet to start. I find it very difficult to give an estimate now about the yields and what will or will not continue to grow. The acreage in the Netherlands has remained fairly stable. But for us as an export country, it is just as important how the carrots grow abroad and what the impact of the weather in Central Europe is, for example. There are still plenty of uncertainties in the market."
"In any case, prices are currently a lot lower than last year. The price of conventional carrots for direct sales is around 14 cents and organic carrots are between 22 and 25 cents. There is just not enough export. Demand from Africa is now picking up a bit and otherwise small bits are going throughout Europe."
The quality will not be an issue, according to Peter. "On average, I think there are reasonably nice carrots. What I notice in the polders is that it's pretty dry in the fields. Considering all the rain we've had in spring, that's quite striking. But that could just turn around in two days too if we look at the weather reports."
For more information:
Peter Rinkel
Hagranop
Sluitgatweg 4
8308 RE Nagele
Tel: +31 (0) 527 27 61 65
[email protected]
www.hagranop.com