The top fruit harvest is as good as over and the market has its first impressions of the season. "We have had an eventful year with extreme cases. We have received fruit that was above 35 degrees, which won't happen again soon. At the start we thought the fruit, and in particular the pears would be very big. We had a very good growing season with a lot of rain. Then came the extreme hot weather and this created a flip side. It will come to fruit in storage. In the plots that were well watered and were treated with fertigation, the problems won't be too bad. In other plots, I expect the fruit to continue to ripen in storage and not make it to March. We had also hoped that the Russian embargo would have been lifted by now, but there is no movement at all," says Paul Peters van Gebr. Peters Fruithandel.
Current market prices
"In general the yield of a hectare of pears is a few thousand Euro higher than that of a hectare of apples. The sale of pears is easier for us, as they have apples in Eastern Europe, but not pears. We don't have to compete with them for the pears and we notice that in sales every day. We do have to deal with this with apples and it makes a different. The price of Doyenne du Comice is between 50 and 75 cents, the price for the good Conference pears between 50 and 60 cents. It's difficult to find a customer for apples. If you have a channel, like a supermarket, you can do something with it. We don't have sales in a Dutch supermarket, so we're better not to focus on it," explains Paul.
Market situation
The fruit trader says he doesn't expect anything to happen with the Elstar/ regular apples until the start of March. "That's my view. There is too much pressure with a too ripe party of apples, that will have to go and I don't see anyone standing up and saying 'bring me those apples'. With the Jonagold that are in good storage it might not be as bad. It might do well in the summer. It has been warm across Europe, but you need to have the right storage and use it. In the pears I see a shift. In the long term something could happen there, but I suspect there will be pressure there from riper parties on pears. No one knows what will happen, but I think there will generally be pressure on the market due to the ripe fruit."
Organic
"We aren't in the trade of organic fruit, but it will grow. We would like to switch partially, but you can't just do that and you have to realise a better price per hectare to be better off. First of all you're picking less traditional, so you have to do more, but will have the same. It's about what's left over. Is it viable? A larger area isn't necessarily needed, as long as the income from the existing hectares is good. But this is what I hear from the growers. We aren't doing anything with it just now, but we need to consider it, as it is a growing market with a growth of 10%, whilst we're in decline," says Paul.
Export to Eastern Europe
"We are always focused on exports. Germany was the largest buyer, but this is decreasing and we are now focusing on France and most of Eastern Europe. Our sales of pears in other countries and supermarkets is increasing. I believe countries like Poland haven't reached their peak of the amount of pears we can send. I notice a lot of people like pears a lot. And Germany is starting to appreciate the Conference pear more. They had all kinds of old varieties for a long time. Pears are really growing and we think this is positive. We will face a lot of surprises. I've just turned 50 and my brother Kees is in his mid 50's so we're not that old, but we've never seen it this extreme."
For more information:
Paul Peters
Peters Fruithandel
Culekampseweg 2
4031 JG INGEN
Tel: 0031 (0) 344 601 607