During the Fruit Attraction in Madrid Jean-Paul Nuijten presented his new company, SpecialTom, and the joint venture with the Moroccan 'Cooperative Agricole Adrar', for which he markets Moroccan tomatoes within Europe. Looking back, he says he doesn't regret working for himself for a second. "I want to emphatically profile myself with tomato specialities with different origins, but also want to focus on Dutch soft fruit and Spanish and Moroccan summer fruit this summer."
Jean-Paul Nuijten during the Fruit Attraction
"The tomato supply from Morocco is declining at the moment. I expect to only have around forty percent of the last few weeks' volume next week. There is less product available due to the colder weather, but there is also a good local market, which means less gets sent to Europe. The growers are getting a good price for unsorted product on the local market," says Jean-Paul. "A lot of product was exported to Russia from Morocco at the start of the season, but those direct shipment have reduced greatly."
Moroccan cultivation
"The market for round tomatoes has gone from a considerable peak to a firm low all at once, but I can see the market pulling up over the next few weeks. There is also a lot less volumes arriving from Spain due to the cold weather," continues the trader. He is still looking for some good tomato and soft fruit growers in the Netherlands and Belgium who he can market the volume for. "SpecialTom is a good opportunity for growers who are looking for something new, and want to control things like prices, markets and brands," concludes Jean-Paul.