At the end of last year Central Produce in Barendrecht started working as a European sales office for a Costa Rican banana grower. The first bananas arrived in December. "Everyone was wondering what we were doing in the banana market, which is dominated by the big players, but thanks to the set programmes the first months exceeded our expectations. The advantage is that we're growers ourselves and work closely with tens of professional farms. This makes us more flexible and we can offer banana programmes all year round," says Juan Pablo Salmón.
"We're now in a calmer period for the banana market, but that's not bad for us. The programmes with the supermarkets are made each year in September and October, so we can prepare ourselves well for the conversations with retail and ripeners and have time to expand our assortment. We are already receiving some limes from Venezuela and the first Costa Rican pineapple was shipped last weekend. We expect them to arrive in Barendrecht on July 31. We also have a partnership with a Costa Rican grower for this, who supplies the pineapple under our own brand Central."
"The natural flowering ended in Costa Rica in week 26/27 and this means the pineapple supply is quite a bit lower. At the moment the market is quite tame as a result of the large European fruit production, but I expect the pineapple market to revive in a few weeks," says Juan Pablo. The sales of Central Produce focus on retail and wholesale customer throughout Europe.
For more information:
Juan Pablo Salmón
Central Produce
Handelscentrum ZHZ 52
2991 LD Barendrecht
The Netherlands
+31(0)180 222 210
m +31(0)6 5796 2882
jpsalmon@centralproduce.eu
www.centralproduce.eu