This year's Ramadan period officially starts on March 22 and is a high-turnover season for many fruit wholesalers. "Due to the high prices of many products, this year's Ramadan period is proving rather difficult," says Göksel Keser, a buyer and seller at fruit wholesaler Yesil Ltd at the Essen wholesale market. The company counts many ethnic supermarkets and specialty stores among its clientele and itself also operates a branch network with a total of five retail stores in the Essen-Bottrop area.
The sales team of Yesil Ltd at the Frischezentrum Essen.
Dates in all variations are a positive exception in the laborious market. Keser: "We offer Medjoul dates from Israel as well as Jordan, which are mainly traded in 5 kg packages. We also sell Deglet Nour (1 kg) and Beluga (400 g) from Tunisia. However, the most popular are still the thick Medjoul dates, which we offer in the normal and larger Jumbo assortment. The latter item is particularly popular with the quality-conscious buyer."
Göksel Keser shows jumbo Medjoul dates from Israel.
Price-wise, the Medjoul dates currently range from 32-40 euros/5 kg. "Compared to many products, they are still in the normal range," says Keser. "The demand for dates at Ramadan time is naturally much higher than usual, which is reflected in the price. After Ramadan, prices usually go down rapidly. The same applies to sales volumes: Now the Medjoul dates are traded by the pallet, then after Ramadan demand settles back to the usual level."
Deglet Nour (l) and Beluga dates from Tunisia.
Furthermore, marketing is currently extremely difficult, the wholesaler continues. Prices are generally high and demand is relatively low, he says. "Turkish tomatoes were on sale at 6-7 euros/crate last year, and now some of them are already at 10 euros/crate when purchased. Spanish cucumbers have doubled in price in some cases and are also now trading at particularly high prices just before the end of the season." According to Keser, this is also having a noticeable effect on volume purchases. "We used to be able to easily get rid of up to 10-15 pallets per customer in deliveries, but today it's only a few pallets."
The last Moroccan Nadorcott clementines of the season.
The Yesil company has been based at the Essen Frischezentrum for many years and also works with the well-known Dutch supplier Lukassen AGF, among others. The entire Moroccan product range is sourced via this partner. Keser says, "We buy Moroccan Nadorcott clementines of the Lammy brand, for example, and although Moroccan citrus fruits are now a marginal product in Germany, they are very well received by our customers. Otherwise, Moroccan tomatoes are procured via Lukassen, but unfortunately they are also far above last year's level at the moment."
For more information:
Göksel Keser
Yesil My Fresh Fruit GmbH
Großmarkt Essen
Tel.: 0201 / 29460410
Fax: 0201 / 29460430
[email protected]
www.yesilgmbh.com