Last week Denimpex once again made its annual trip to Brazil to visit the various suppliers of limes, ginger, grapes and mangos. "I went to various wholesale markets in Brazil. This included the one in Sao Paulo, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest in the country. You can see that the local market is securely stable, but most traders notice that last year's booming economy has taken a small step back," says Joey Deen.
"The interesting thing was there were predominantly imported products: apples and pears from Argentina, onions from the Netherlands, Argentina and Chile, dates from America and even pitahaya from Thailand. Everything can be found there! Most importers say that the imported products do better than the domestic ones," says Joey. He takes stock of the various products.
Mangos
"There are various growers who renewed the older parts of their plantations two or three years ago by taking out older mango trees and replacing them with new ones. The largest part of these new plants are all in the 'fiberless' varieties, such as Palmer, Kent and Keith. As a result of this replanting, I notice that the biggest pressure on the producers and packagers is in the last quarter of the year. A large part of the trees will bear fruits then. It is clear to see in the area of mangos that most growers and packagers focus more on exporting from the domestic market. Tommy Atkins is still the favourite and dominates the domestic market."
Grapes
The Brazilian grape season will be very interesting this year. A big player in the market replaced a considerable amount of his plantations with table grapes for grapes that will disappear into the fresh juices. I also saw that various growers and exporter are experimenting with other varieties such as the standard Sugraone, Thompson Seedless and Crimson. I heard that the new varieties were sent to the European market on a small scale last season, but this year the newer varieties such as Sweet Globe, Sugar Crisp and Sweet Celebration will find their way to Europe in larger numbers. The main reason for changing the varieties is that these ones give more kilos per hectare, which bring the end results for the grower to a higher level. There isn't much to say about the yields yet, as it is currently the period in which they do the 'bunch counts'. There will be more information available in one or two weeks."
Ginger
The Brazilian ginger market is very strange. The internal market is higher than the export market. But the Brazilians are very conscious that they can only consume 60-70% of their harvest domestically. This means export is a must. This is why there is a two track policy," explains Joey. "The ginger looks very good this year, as the climatological conditions have been optimal for ginger this year. We will receive our first containers of our own brand 'Delicio Frutas' next week and will have weekly arrivals until the end of November."
Limes
"Not a lot of trees were planted after the extremely good prices made in Europe in 2014. It is estimated at only 3% by the growers. But two new packaging houses have been built and almost all packagers have invested in larger spaces and machines. I think this is noticeable in the supply. There is more packaging capacity," says the importer. "The limes had some rain last week, so the sensible exporters won't export due to the yellow colour and danger of oleocellosis. We will also skip one week in order to guarantee constant quality to our customers."
For more information:
Joey Deen
Denimpex B.V.
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 10
1011 HB Amsterdam – Holland
T: +31 20 6246390
F: +31 20 6225448
www.denimpex.nl