Spanish stone fruit season off to a good and early start

After the first paraguayos arrived at Wilko Fruit in Breda a few weeks ago — “because of that, we are the first in the Netherlands” — the importer has completed the stone fruit assortment with peaches, nectarines, apricots and cherries by now.

“Over the years, I’ve been very absorbed in all types of varieties, and I’m trying to transfer that knowledge to supermarkets and other customers. That is especially important for fruit. If you offer the wrong varieties now, the consumer will not buy stone fruit for the next five weeks, but with good varieties, repeat purchases are guaranteed,” Wilko van der Zwaard says. 

The circumstances for the Spanish stone fruit productions were excellent this year. “We’re off to a much better start than in previous years,” Wilko says. “The trees have had plenty of cold hours, and temperatures right now are also good for the production of fruit. It might be a bit chilly for sales now, but the weather forecast for the coming week is much better. Prices are at an interesting level to start with as well, and you can see supermarkets will start with the fruit from this week. Supply started a week earlier than in previous years, and all prospects are good.”

“The suppliers in France and Spain from whom we buy apricots, are both agriculturalists of the best blush varieties, such as Colorado. With it, we carry large programmes for retailers, but we also supply market vendors and re-exporters,” Wilko explains.

“The Spanish cherry season is also off to a good start, We mostly work with meaty cherries, Red Pacific and Mimba, which will replace the early Burlat cherries more and more in future. These cherries are firm, have large sizes, and an excellent sweet content.”

“We expect a similar volume as last year, but our suppliers have significantly thinned out their orchards, so that the sizes are larger. However, that’s not the general image. For us, it’s a preference, because small fruit doesn’t sell, and larger, flavourful fruit ensures good sales.”

“We really see consumers coming back to our Gaudias brand, and that is naturally what customers want to see,” Wilko explains. The paraguayos will be available in five-kilogram and the well-known donut packaging again.