The Spanish strawberry season is in full swing. “Volumes have increased and demand is also increasing because of the spring weather in Belgium. Last week, temperatures in Spanish Huelva were higher than 25 degrees Celsius. This week, it is noticeably colder there, and rain has been forecast. We therefore had larger volumes for a while, but they will be slightly smaller for a bit. A few days of cold weather has an enormous effect on production amounts,” says Henk Vlaeminck from Van Dijk Foods Belgium.
Price decrease
Henk indicates that prices have decreased because of the increasing volume. “Prices on 13 March were 30 to 40 cents lower than they were at the start of last week. Late last week, the market was already much lower on average, but still above one euro. Anyway, prices differ per supplier and per quality.” There’s not much competition with domestic strawberries yet. “These are still expensive, of course, but they fall in a different price category. Each price has its own audience.”
Lower supply of raspberries and blueberries
As volumes will not increase much this week, Henk suspects prices will remain stable. “Of course, much is dependent on the weather here, but fine spring weather is expected for this week. If this changes, sales will drop a bit again, but we’ll cross that bridge when we meet it.” There is good demand for strawberries, according to him. “There’s not much other fruit available either. It is expected that there will be a smaller supply of raspberries in the next three weeks. Blueberries had smaller volumes for a while, but that will apparently change. This week, more blueberries are expected again.” For more information:
Henk Vlaeminck
Van Dijk Foods Belgium
Kempenarestraat 50
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium
Tel.: +32 15 55 65 61
Fax.: +32 15 55 65 66
info@vdfb.be
www.vandijkfoods.be