Holland has a favourable base for the cultivation of carrots. This position wasn't only created due to suitable soil types, a favourable climate and good storage opportunities, but also by the important roles of craftsmanship and entrepreneurship. The finer types such as baby carrots are counted among the carrots, as well as the coarse varieties, such as winter carrots.
The consumption of carrots shows no large increase. The bulk product is hardly defined on the shelves. A limited amount of the carrots are pre-processed, such as the pre-packaged or cut ones. There are hardly any other varieties. The export is more important for Dutch carrot growers. A large portion of the production is sold to markets abroad, in which the EU member states are large sales markets.
In 2012, a third of the exported carrots were sold in Germany. Countries in Eastern Europe are also important buyers of Dutch carrots. Especially Russia, our second sales market, buys a lot of carrot. The demand for carrot is big in this country. After the harvest, Russia initially turns to Poland. Later on, the Dutch product comes into play. The export to Russia has varied in the last five years, between 5,670 tonnes (2009) and 16,451 (2008). Other large sales markets in Eastern Europe are the Czech Republic and Romania.
In the current season the Dutch export is starting off slowly. The export is being hindered by the strong competition from other producing countries. Poland is active on the international market longer than usual in the current sales season. More buyers are also becoming self-sufficient, which makes the demand for foreign products smaller. In the rest of the season, it is important for the price formation to see how the demand from Eastern Europe will develop. The difficult market conditions will make the carrot area shrink slightly in the coming season. It is important for the buyers to pay a lot of attention to cost price control in the long term. There are also possibilities for innovative products with other application possibilities, special tastes and such.
Source: Agrarisch Nieuws, ABN Amro, Thijs Pons
