EU: Difficult Summer period for strawberries

The strawberry market went through a very difficult period, but according to Jan Engelen it is going better at the moment. "It was actually a coincidence. Due to the cold Spring the open ground cultivation moved back together with the cultivation on racks. Then July was very warm and that pushed everything into production at the same time. All of a sudden there was a top supply; in three/four weeks 6 million kg. was supplied. In addition when we have a lot of production other North-European countries have the same problem and prices are not good."

Photograph: Frank Croes for Veiling Hoogstraten

Low point
"The lowest average price on a daily basis was 1.15/kg and that was really a low point. Especially because this happened during the open ground period. That was different last year as well. Questions arise with this, such as: How to continue with open ground cultivation? Especially because there is a rather large difference in price between the protected and open ground cultivation at the same time. It is a fact that open ground is dependent upon the weather, on which we have no influence. Therefore it is a heavy risk and often things with a lot of risk either run very well or very badly. I certainly believe in a future for this cultivation and we even advise companies to spread the risk and to do protected cultivation. A number of them followed this advice, but in general an open ground grower remains an open ground grower. They specifically chose for this and then they will not split this up."

Photograph: Frank Croes for Veiling Hoogstraten

Difference in price
Jan mentions that the average difference in price between open ground and protected strawberries changes from day to day. "When it does not go well everything is bad, but as soon as the market goes better the difference is bigger. That was 30 cents/kg and even higher. I think that this is mainly dependent on the appreciation of the buyer. Some of them however, have more confidence in protected productions. This year, however, this is without a base. We have not had any problem with the quality of the open ground strawberries."

Pressure on export
"At the end of last week the market improved and this week as well it went better. We are now back at a price of 3.50/kg. That is the price of all selections. The price is good for the time of the year. Because of the larger production this season there was also more pressure on the export. We sell in France and Scandinavia and they bought less in a period with a large supply. In Spring the production was late. Spain disappointed. Therefore we had high prices. Up until May, the price was far above the average. We then received 3.78 but because of the Summer period this has now decreased again. The average price is now 3.05 over the entire season."

For more information:
Jan Engelen
Veiling Hoogstraten
59, Loenhoutseweg
Hoogstraten - Belgium
Tel: +32 3 3400233
Fax: +32 3 3147844
www.hoogstraten.eu