The flood disaster a few weeks ago has left deep scars in large parts of Lower Austria. This has been exacerbated by the ongoing inflation and a dampened buying mood in certain retail segments. Despite everything, the vegetable producer and wholesaler Heinrich Penz from Melk is looking ahead with a sense of optimism, he says.
Penz currently offers a wide variety of home-grown potatoes, sweet peppers, courgettes, lettuce, and vegetables. The tomato season is now gradually drawing to a close. Despite the flooding, he was largely spared damage to property or crop losses. "We had finished harvesting potatoes just a few hours before the heavy rain and there was no significant damage to other crops, such as lettuce, as we mainly plant them in polyethene. Only the delivery to the cruise ships, an important division of our company, was sometimes very difficult, which was mainly due to the closure of the waterways and the resulting additional organisational effort."
Most of the home-grown crops are planted on rottable mulch film. Clockwise: fennel, cinnamon, Genovese basil and watermelon.
Start of the autumn season
The arrival of the first Italian chestnuts, Turkish lemons and Spanish satsumas heralded the start of autumn. Penz: "In the course of week 40, however, it gets a little cooler, which naturally helps sales of these products. Everything is arriving earlier this year, regardless of whether it's from our own cultivation or imported produce. I'm also curious to see how this year's citrus season will develop in the Northern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, we also offer plenty of top fruit from Styria, such as blush Williams pears, which are currently in high demand. Coloured pears are clearly in vogue, but are mostly sourced from Italy. In contrast to their green counterparts, the red Williams pears from Styria are only available for a short time, probably until the beginning of November." The transition to the apple season was rather bumpy, the fruit wholesaler continues. "For Gala in particular, we had to resort to goods from South Tyrol and Poland."
Red Williams pears from Styria and Italian early chestnuts.
Increased price sensitivity
Apart from the usual market fluctuations, inflation is also continuing to exert a certain amount of pressure on the markets, confirms Penz. "We are feeling the effects of inflation less in the catering sector, while we are seeing increased price sensitivity in retail. This means that regional and often somewhat higher-priced products are attracting less attention, although there are still customers who specifically choose these regional products. Our task is to inform the end consumer about possible alternatives from other European countries or, in the worst case, from overseas. This communication of information about the origin and quality of the respective product is now more important than ever in times of inflation. Our new WhatsApp channel should also be mentioned in this regard."
The fruit and vegetable market is always good for a surprise, emphasises Penz, who also runs a pick-up market for commercial and private consumers from Monday to Saturday. "An unusual and higher-priced item like wild garlic also did surprisingly well this year, which is probably due to the aforementioned provision of information about the product. With products such as salads, on the other hand, we have the advantage that local produce can keep up very well with the price competition, which in turn is thanks to the good, relatively favourable production conditions in Lower Austria."
Photo credit: Frisches Früchtchen GmbH
For more information:
Heinrich Penz
Frisches Früchtchen GmbH
Melkerstraße 10
A-3393 Matzleinsdorf
Tel: +43-2752/52388
[email protected]
www.penz.farm