The strawberry market saw a nice revival last week, and this week it has returned to slightly more normal levels. Yesterday was a national holiday in Belgium, but there have been some sales nevertheless. Jan Engelen of Veiling Hoogstraten says that there's more supply now than last week. "That has caused prices to go down again. Last week was unusual for a while, but then we had less supply. Compared to the weekly prognosis, we were behind about 250 tonnes."
1 million kilos this week
"When we now look at what has already been supplied on Saturday, Monday and today, this week we will return to a supply of one million kilos", he continues. "Last season we had a late spring, and many volumes arrived at the same time during the summer. We had weeks of 1.6 million kilos then, around this time. We won't reach those numbers now." Compared to last week, the price has halved. "Last week we had price levels of around 5 Euro per kilo in all varieties. So that's quite high. With the better varieties, we even exceeded 6 Euro. Today, the median price is around 2.50 again."
Not a universal story
According to Jan, it's still too early to draw conclusions about the season. "Production-wise, we're ahead of last year, but the median price is lagging behind. We're a little over the season's midpoint, so an important period is still ahead of us. That means anything can still happen. There's no need to get all negative. With strawberries, there are all sorts of crops, cultivation systems and growers: you can never tell a universal story. The past week was a pleasant surprise for outdoor growers. They could certainly use it."
Hoogstraten has recently taken up a new ever-bearer, the Capri variety. This was presented in the new packaging last week. "We don't have a very large volume yet, but things are going well. When everything is more expensive like last week, it's a great period to introduce something like that. The new box is also a success. The Capri is a bit more oblong to look at and has a flatter shape, like the ever-bearers in the south. The bite, flavour and colour on the other hand, are more aimed at the Northern European June-bearer. Because it's not our intention to go in the direction of the Spanish strawberry."
For more information:
Jan Engelen
Veiling Hoogstraten
Loenhoutseweg 59
Hoogstraten - Belgium
Tel: +32 3 3400233
Fax: +32 3 3147844
www.hoogstraten.eu
For more information:
Jan Engelen
Veiling Hoogstraten
Loenhoutseweg 59
Hoogstraten - Belgium
Tel: +32 3 3400233
Fax: +32 3 3147844
www.hoogstraten.eu