“More demand for edible flowers because of gin hype”

It is summer and the weather forecast is looking good. “Trade is picking up. For the first 14 days of this month demand for fruits and vegetables was not great on the Belgian coast. The weather was not exactly against us, but the weather forecasts were just a bit disappointing, even though this was only the case for inland, not the coast. That was very unfortunate for us,” says Wim Tanghe of wholesaler’s Groenten&Fruit. “Fortunately, that is no longer the case.”

Tanghe continues: “We are hoping that, due to the good forecasts, it is really going to start now. We are currently experiencing many price fluctuations at the auction houses because of the rain that fell inland. Harvest and volumes are lower because of this. It is difficult to charge for that, we cannot aks for our regular profit margin if that is too expensive. And besides, the people who work in catering do not always understand if you change the prices to be more expensive.”

Tanghe is pleased with the wide range of fresh fruit on the market. “We think it is great to work with such top-quality products. Our customers appreciate the different brads such as strawberries from Magique, peaches from Favel, pineapple from DelMonte and products from Tomabel and Fine Fleur. We have a lot of demand for these as well.” According to Tanghe the quality of Moroccan oranges was disappointing this season. “They contained a lot of juice, but were difficult to store, and quick to rot. We get new oranges from Argentina this week, hopefully those will be good regarding flavour, price and yield.” 

Gin with flowers have become in trend in catering. “Due to the gin hype, we have a much higher demand for edible flowers. Furthermore, the mussel season is in full swing now, so onions and celeries are also doing very well. And, of course, red fruit is often served as dessert, raspberries, strawberries, berries with a scoop of ice cream.”

Mainly Belgians visit the coast, and some Dutch and German tourists. “Fortunately, we are less affected by the terrorist threat on the coast. Especially large cities, and mainly Brussels are affected by it. Bruges also has noticeably fewer tourists. The tourists mooring in Zeebrugge with cruise ships also hesitate to visit Bruges. The result is much less sales, and many catering and trading businesses are starting to feel it.”

Tanghe notices that catering is in more trouble in general. “Ever since the Belgian catering had to invest in a registered cash register system, a tool in the fight against VAT fraud, they are open much less. Most of them are closed for two days of the week now,” according to Tanghe. “Almost everyone used to be open seven days a week during the season, but nowadays you hardly see that anymore. Even during the day they are closed for certain hours. That means less sales for suppliers.”