Despite summer weather sprout and kale sales doing reasonably well

People are not thinking about sprouts and kale with these kinds of temperatures, but Mike Glas from Glas Groenten from Broek op Langedijk has already delivered the first winter vegetables to his customers last week. "The current weather conditions are actually too warm, but there was still a good deal sold last week. I actually expected that less would be sold."

Traditionally the company starts the kale harvest the first week of September, at this time the sprouts are also packaged. "In the past, people sometimes ate kale at the end of April, but now people are not eating kale as soon as the sun starts shining in the spring. Therefore the season is getting shorter," says Mike. "Not all farmers are venturing out, but with the early sprouts you can still make money. They are not yet fully grown, so less kilos can be picked, but you still make more money. In the beginning of the season the prices are sometimes well above one Euro. Over the years sprout cultivation has moved from numerous smaller scale growers to a few larger growers."

Glas Groenten supplies the winter vegetables to regional supermarkets and wholesalers. "Initially we deal with our own cultivation of kale and then later in the season we involve fellow growers." Glas Groenten works with fixed kale prices. Mike has a lot of faith in the sales of kale. "Kale is coming back as a new super food. We do not export it ourselves, but I expect an increase in demand for sliced kale and kale leaves from exporters. In the U.S. kale is really popular right now. Recently we received a request from an exporter that exports to Abu Dhabi."

Henk and Mike Glas

Mike is hoping that the consumption of sprouts will return to what it once was. "A lot of promotion is going on and they are just good! A lot of the time people think that they do not like sprouts, but if you set a stew in front of them without telling them that there are sprouts in it, I know for sure they would love it. Nowadays there are not many bitter sprouts around.

For more information:
Glas Groenten VOF
Dulleweg 36
1721 PM Broek op Langedijk
T: 0226-313981
F: 0226-320245
E: info@glas-groenten.nl
W: www.glas-groenten.nl
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