Thomas Besnard-Schwerdlin, ABCD L’Exotique:
“Every week the banana market is different”
“Everyone I spoke to during the Fruit Logistica was surprised, because the game has completely changed and everyone now needs to adapt their strategy accordingly. It has all become quite uncertain. For example, the good rate of the dollar means it has become quite expensive to import from South America, making it more difficult to be profitable. Bananas are currently expensive in production. Three quarters of bananas are imported under contract from retailers and supermarket chains. The remaining volume is sold at more expensive prices.”
“We are a small company, we manage five to fifteen trucks per week, but the idea is to not lose money and to always protect your margins. We work with maybe 10 contacts out of one hundred per week. Sometimes we work with big customers, sometimes with smaller ones, or newcomers. That is why I have to go to the fairs in Berlin and Madrid every year. It is almost like the play-offs in football for me. It is important to meet your contacts, to put a face to the names.”
ABCD L’Exotique
“I have been in the banana trade for 20 years already, and I have been working at the family business ABCD L’Exotique since 2006. We are selling bananas all over Europe, mostly green ones. However, we also sell some yellow bananas to various buyers from Europe. We are also involved in the plantain business, we get about two or three trucks per week, all from Colombia. We also get a lot of roots and exotic vegetables,” Thomas continues. “We buy bananas from various importers in Europe rather than directly from producers. I contact five to ten different suppliers every day, and they tell me what they have available to offer in the Spot Market per day. Because of this, we can supply any origin or brand, depending on what customers are looking for”.
“We have all kinds of customers, from importers to retailers and food service, and more. It all depends on the market, and that changes every day. I essentially adapt my business to what I can find and what I can do. I am working this way because I had some bad experiences in the past with buying from the origin, and I decided to completely change the way I work. That is why I now buy from importers. However, because this completely corresponds to the new global business, it is a benefit.”
Challenges
“Last year was a very bad year, there just was not enough consumption. This was caused by various things, but I think the main reason was the political situation in Europe. When consumers have no confidence in the general policy, they stop consuming. And the first type of food they stop consuming is fruit. We are the first sector affected by low confidence in general,” Thomas explains. “We also had a lot of competition from seasonal products. Production in Europe was very high in 2016, we suddenly had bananas again in September and October because of the high temperatures. Unfortunately, no one wanted to eat bananas, everyone wanted watermelons and grapes.”
In the end though, 2017 can hardly be compared to 2016, because it has become too unpredictable. “Every month is different, a lot of climatic facts are now affecting all the importers, even in Europe.” Thomas concludes.
For more information:
Thomas Besnard
ABCD L’Exotique
thomas@bananier.com
www.bananier.com