Sale problems on the pear market
In Germany, the market is currently dominated mainly by Italian pears. This is shown in the market report (no. 03/2015) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (BLE). The Italian supply supplemented by pears from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the current low demand for pears on the entire European market leads to low and stagnating prices. Dirk Schulz explains: “For an importer like myself, who gets his goods from overseas, it is very difficult to sell these goods right now.” He further explains: “In my opinion, for the current prices: There's no Importer who is able to bring goods to Europe from overseas.”
Argentina wants to reduce export duties
SFI is operating all around the world through its two offices in Hamburg and Rotterdam. Their primary business is to import fruit and vegetables, but they also give advice regarding new trends and sustainable productions, to their growers overseas. Schulz gets his pears mostly from Argentina. According to Schulz, there is a discussion about the reduction of export duties in Argentina right now. Such actions are intended to help increase the export of Argentinian farmers. Dirk Schulz says: “Argentina is the only country that is imposing export duties. But now the government wants to reduce these duties or maybe even delete them entirely.”
Quality better than the price
Concerning the quality, Schulz is certain: “Especially in March, April and May, the quality of overseas goods is better than the quality of European ones. The European goods are currently only available from the cold store.” He thinks, the quality of the pears are currently much better than the price. The importer also states, that the pear varieties Conférence and Doyenne de Comice are right now the favourite pear varieties on the European market: “For class one Conférence or Doyenne de Comice pears you get around 70 to 80 Cents. Behind them it’s getting as low as 40 Cents. The pear market in Europe is destroyed.” For Schulz, the causes of this situation are the Russian crisis, pear overproduction and a mostly non-existent demand of pears. Schulz also sees the upcoming months being ill-fated: “The season 2015 is absolutely over. For a change, we need the Russian market to get back to normal again and maybe we also need a little weather disaster on the European harvest.”
SFI Hamburg Fruchthandels GmbH
Carl-Petersen Strasse 76
20535 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 303 98 88
e-mail: hamburg@sfifruit.com