Consumption in general, is not exactly rosy due to the decline in purchasing power. In particular, holidays end in September, plus children go back to school and spending increases. In addition, as is currently happening, the weather undergoes sudden changes. This makes the market unstable. Vegetables like zucchini are sought after and have high prices, while exotic-ethnic products are consumed less as they are not common purchases in Italy.
Giorgio Donnarumma, sales manager of Nuovafrutta in Milan, emphasizes two aspects that exacerbated the situation even more. "September has been a terrible month so far on a logistic level due to the lack of trucks and drivers. In addition, lower trade has meant fewer vehicles on the road, mainly from north to south, but also from south to north. This means delays upon delays, with the risk of losing sales, and of having to wait up to five days before being able to load, thus compromising the quality of some products."
Brazilian lime
Lime
"As for limes, a lot of Brazilian produce reached Europe at the same time due to the bad weather conditions that hit Brazil in August, meaning stocks of both old and new product accumulated. Consumption is slow and quotations are falling."
Mangoes
"Market instability applies not only to limes, but also to other fruits such as mangoes. Fruits of different varieties currently on the market are of Egyptian, Israeli and Spanish origin and have a strong impact on the prices of the Brazilian produce of the Palmer variety, which records purchase prices at origin of €4.5-5/packet and is sold at €6-7/packet. Margins are not big, again due to declining consumption."
Brazilian Palmer Mangoes
"As for the airfreighted mango campaign, shipments from Mexico have ended and we still see few volumes of Shelley, Kasturi and Kent varieties from Israel. Haden mangoes are starting to arrive by air from Peru, from where the Kent variety will also arrive in late October/early November. The campaign will be in full swing by mid/late November."
Colombian plantains
Plantains
"While the sale prices of the few quality goods arriving from Ecuador tended to rise in week 35 with around €36-38/crate, they showed a decline already in week 38 dropping to €30-32/crate By contrast, the Colombian produce showed quotations of €33-35 euro/crate. Despite the drop, prices are still high."
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Peruvian Hass avocados (left) and South African Ryan avocados(right)
Avocados
"The Moroccan greenskin campaign is about to restart with the Zutano variety and the marketing of South African Ryan avocados has just started. Prices remain very high at around €12 at origin. As for Hass avocados, we are at the end of the Peruvian campaign and other origins, such as Israel, Mexico, Colombia and Morocco, will soon start to arrive. In this case too, purchase prices remain high at around €13-14."
Photos provided by Giorgio Donnarumma
For more information:
Nuovafrutta
Via Cesare Lombroso 54
20137 Milan - Italy
[email protected]