The purple pointed cabbage, Violetti, is garnering extra interest as the holidays approach, says Coen Swager of the outdoor vegetable company TB&S, based in Sint-Pancras. "Most orders have already been placed by now, but we've definitely noticed increasing interest. In the past, people typically opted for red cabbage, but now they're choosing Violetti."
Growing conditions for cabbage this year have been quite challenging. "It's difficult to provide a general overview because the differences between plots are significant. We see this on our own farm as well. Yields from plots that didn't establish well due to wet conditions during planting have lagged behind, but there are also plenty of plots that grew under good conditions and produced fine yields. The same applies to common pointed cabbage. However, we can say that last year's wet autumn and this spring's wet weather have led to lower overall yields," Coen explains, describing prices as average. "Free trade has been quite good, but most of our volume is in fixed programs."
Regarding sales of Violetti purple pointed cabbage, Coen notes that they are still waiting for a retailer to embrace this relatively new outdoor vegetable. "However, we are seeing good demand from processors, and those volumes are well accounted for. There's also traditionally strong demand from Scandinavia, particularly when they face shortages themselves. The Violetti is quite popular there." Meanwhile, TB&S has discontinued its efforts with another novelty in field vegetables—savoy cabbage. "It turned out to be a very difficult crop to grow in the Netherlands, and meeting year-round demand became too much of a challenge."
At the Portuguese farm, Swager reports that cultivation is going well. "Weather conditions there are favorable. Currently, we're mainly supplying savoy cabbage from Portugal to Germany and the local market. Meanwhile, the season for Portuguese bottle pumpkins is coming to an end, so we're wrapping up production a bit earlier than in previous years." The grower is optimistic about the new year. "People will always need to eat, and I hope they'll take a particular liking to pointed cabbage."
For more information:
Coen Swager
TB&S
Vronermeerweg 1
1834 AX Sint Pancras
Tel: +31 (0)6 53 49 84 60
[email protected]
www.spit skool.com
www.violetti.nl