The greenhouse vegetable year 2016 is a year with two faces. The start of the tomato season was difficult, but the extreme rain and hail at the end of June caused imbalance and panic in the market. This meant the traditional dip in the industry was lacking and there were the necessary outliers this summer, but other products are still performing sub par. Purchaser and seller Jesper van Oostende of The Greenery sums it up.
"The start of 2016 was a very difficult start for tomatoes under light. The expansion of the area under light, combined with a mild winter in southern Europe, caused an over-supply of good quality produce. This has led to the very mediocre prices for many tomato segments under light," says Jesper. "The start of the traditional season was also very difficult. The supply from Spain was still in full swing and the quality was good. This meant there was no need for many customers to switch to Dutch product. Due to the precarious weather the European consumption was also disappointing."
"This led to a lack of prime prices for the unlit growers. This seems to be a trend that has become clearer in recent years. The unstable and precarious weather also meant that 2016 won't go down as a good kilo production year among growers.
A turning point in the market was the extreme weather at the end of June. Extreme rain and hail storms cause a lot of damage to the open ground and greenhouse companies in the south east of the Netherlands. Due to the sudden dropout of these tens of hectares of product, there was an imbalance and panic in the market. This imbalance pushed the prices of many products up," says Jesper.
"Products such as cucumber and plum tomatoes were the outliers here. We entered the summer with this good price formation. This resulted in the traditional summer price dip in the industry not occurring. This compensated slightly for the mediocre start to the season. There are some exceptions. Products such as greenhouse courgette, round tomatoes and vines are still performing below expectation. They need some good autumn prices to make sure that the growers end up in positive figures before the end of the year," continues the seller.
Jesper is satisfied about the collaboration with growers and customers. "The Greenery has proven again this year, with the Coforta growers, that they can get the best out of the market, even in these extreme market situations, for both the customer and the grower. Tailoring means that the growers know who they are producing for and the customer knows where their product comes from. This collaboration and this tailoring will be one of the defining factors for success heading towards 2017."
For more information:
The Greenery
Tel: 0031 (0) 180- 656715
Mob: 0031 (0) 6-10307111
[email protected]
www.theGreenery.com
