It's a slow period at the moment, in the exotics trade. "Traditionally, it is always like this in summer," Ive Lambert of Starfruit tells us. "On the other hand, we see that there are also no large volumes of avocados coming in at the moment, for example."
"There is substantially less fruit coming in from Peru," the Flemish importer continues. "Normally, with a good harvest we do continue with fairly large volumes until September/October and sometimes even November, but that will be significantly different this year. We also saw it with mangoes. Due to the weather, they only had 20 per cent of the normal harvest. With all its consequences. As a result, quite a few big players have virtually gone under. They have planted and invested quite a bit in recent years. Loans are then taken out for that, but if you then have such a bad season, you get into trouble. Especially if it would be several years in a row."
"So now with avocados, albeit to a lesser extent, we see that too," he continues. There are few other origins that can absorb it then as well, Ive argues. "Peru traditionally has the biggest products at this time of year. Kenya does come up a bit more and South Africa is coming up more and more. Only with goods from South Africa, there have been some quality problems in recent years. Then there's some smaller production from Tanzania, for example. Colombia may have some production, but this season the US is also looking more there, as it imports less from Mexico."
"It is a bit of birding at the moment, which makes us think that prices will be driven up by the end of this month and early September. There is always enough available at the end of the day, because demand is also not thriving during this period Europe-wide."
For more information:
Ive Lambert
Starfruit Company
Werkhuizenkaai 112-154
Brussels - Belgium
+32 (0)2242 0876
[email protected]
www.starfruit.be