Compared to previous years, exotics struggled over the festive season. However, at Starfruit, one product somewhat escaped the difficulties, sales-wise: lychees. "These are currently actually running pretty well. But, those arriving by boat from South Africa are priced significantly lower than in previous years," says Ive Lambert of this Belgian import company.
For many, lychees are not yet a regular weekly grocery item, though this trader sees its popularity growing. "We import these from both South Africa and Madagascar. The South African lychees were two weeks earlier than in other years. So, they had to compete fully with the Madagascan supply. The large supply made things much harder. Usually, this product arrives from South Africa between Christmas and New Year, but we already got the first ones by December 14."
"The South African fruit, however, was of much better quality than those from Madagascar. They, thus, sold well, but because those supplies coincided, we just didn't get the same high prices as years before," Ive continues.
Pitahaya is another top seller at this importer. "Of the Christmas products, this one ran really well. For what they pay, people get a larger piece of fruit, which is always an eye-catcher too. We import these from mainly Vietnam, and also some from Thailand. They sold nicely with acceptable prices."
Still, Ive admits the Christmas period was generally fairly quiet. "Sales were good, but not as wild as other years. People are paying more attention to spending. Normally, some products run out before Christmas," he says, "but we had far fewer shortages this year. We'd somewhat taken this into account, and we bought more carefully. We can't complain, though; we had a nice turnover with exotics around the holidays, just with no craziness."
According to Ive, there are, thus, no significant supply shortages. "There are few products presently in short supply. The shortages there are, are often due to the logistics process. For example, the asparagus supply from Peru was problematic for a week because of the big strikes there. That disrupted the chain considerably for a while, but fortunately, that's since returned to normal," he concludes.
For more information:
Ive Lambert
Starfruit Company
112 Werkhuizenkaai
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0) 224 20 876
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.groupadw.be/starfruit