The import of Spanish greenhouse vegetables has been mixed this year. From unprecedented high courgette prices to extremely low eggplant prices, and from a 'normal' bell pepper season to greater competition of Dutch vine tomatoes. Ton Bouw and Ger Kingma, responsible for Spanish greenhouse vegetable import at Hagé International, talk about the development of the various seasons.
Ton Bouw and Ger Kingma
Courgettes
"The Spanish courgette season started extremely early, late August. Due to the bad weather in the Netherlands, there was a courgette shortage, so we quickly made sure we had Spanish produce available. For the first couple of months, the courgettes were quite pricey, late last year we had reasonable prices, but since January the courgette prices are remarkably high. I think it's the first time that prices remained so high for such a long period of time, six to eight weeks. We have had prices of 15 Euro and up per box for an extended period of time. Typical for this season is that supermarkets still included courgettes in their product range, despite the high price. Prices have now gone down a bit, but the price level is still quite good."
An important explanation for the good courgette market, according to the importer, are the extremely low supplies from Morocco, which mainly caused the French supermarkets in Spain to start buying. The New Delhi virus, which caused quite a bit of damage in Spanish courgette cultivation in the 2013/14 season, didn't cause any problems this year.
Eggplants
Unlike the courgette prices, the current season has been extremely bad for the Spanish eggplants. "This product really suffered from the Russian boycott. Actually, we've had low prices for the entire season, and many chains have already switched to Dutch produce," Ton says.
Eggplants
Unlike the courgette prices, the current season has been extremely bad for the Spanish eggplants. "This product really suffered from the Russian boycott. Actually, we've had low prices for the entire season, and many chains have already switched to Dutch produce," Ton says.
Bell peppers
Although more bell peppers were planted in Spain this season, this didn't affect pricing negatively. "The weather conditions haven't been extreme, causing supplies to come rather gradually, with acceptable prices as a result. Toward the end of the season, a rather big shortage of yellow bell peppers arose, leading to certain retail chains in various countries being unable to supply a bell pepper mix in three colours. Fortunately we succeeded in that, but it took some effort," Ton says.
Cucumbers
According to the importer, Spanish cucumber growers suffered a lot from the Russian boycott this year. The smaller sizes were previously sold a lot to Russia, so they've now ended up on other markets. "The season started early, with high prices, because Holland was on the market rather quickly, but prices soon went down to average and bad levels," Ton says. "All in all, the Spanish cucumber season wasn't that great."
Tomatoes
Ger Kingma is responsible for buying and selling Spanish tomatoes at Hagé International. "For round tomatoes, the season was good, with a fine quality and steady pricing. The Spanish vine tomatoes are getting more and more under pressure due to the longer cultivation period of Dutch growers, who offer produce as soon as early January from illuminated cultivation," the importer says. "Prior to the season, people were apprehensive about the plum tomato season, because it used to be exported a lot to Russia, but this season still went quite well, and plum tomatoes are gaining a bigger foothold in the Dutch retail landscape. The cherry tomato and cherry plum tomato seasons also went quite well."
For more information:
Ton Bouw
Hagé International
Tel: +31 (0)180 657 892
T.Bouw@thegreenery.com
www.hage-international.nl