After a laborious spring, the aubergine market reached decent price levels again last week. “Day trading prices are around €1.20. It would be good if we could keep up these prices for a while, but the season will not last much longer, and we have our fair share of losses to make up for,” sales leader Gerco Mast of Purple Pride concludes. “Qualitatively, the season is doing well, although supply is quickly decreasing due to the lack of summer weather.”
“By now we are at 70 per cent of our annual production, and that is much higher than, for example, the tomato cultivation. For the production of aubergines, the emphasis is on spring, and Spain has been a formidable competitor in recent years. Where the Spanish used to switch occasionally to a different cultivation, such as melons, they now keep the season going much longer, causing us to be more reliant on the Spanish situation,” Mast continues.
“Besides, this season we once again miss sales to Russia, which was one of the largest buyers of aubergines before the boycott. That is also one of the large causes of our laborious spring. Germany, Scandinavia, the UK and the Netherlands are now the important buyers,” Mast continues. “The big question is whether Spain will keep us waiting with its first supplies. That is going to determine whether we will be able to close the gap or not. Normally the first Spanish aubergines arrive in September, and serious volumes start following from October. The Netherlands is the current price fixer on the market.”
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