The market, especially for raspberries and blackberries, is coming back from a considerable slump. “Up till last week we had a few very tough weeks. Last week Monday prices for raspberries were still around 50 cents. By Friday, prices were five times as high. With prices like these, it’s difficult to make agreements with various parties,” says Henk Nijhoff from Veiling Zaltbommel. “The blackberry market was also very bad for a period, but prices are fortunately recovering now.”
“Redcurrants are also showing a rising line. It’s expected that these will become expensive. As a result of night frost, harvests are 30 per cent lower. Despite that, the season started quite mediocre, price-wise, and batches of poorer quality also went into storage. When the cells open, sorting will have to be strict. The blueberry season has been good along the entire line. The Polish season is expected to end sooner because of frost during the spring, and that offers opportunities to the Dutch cultivation,” Henk says.
“Hopefully the raspberry prices will remain a bit more stable now. Slightly more growers will come into production with the early autumn cultivation, but the summer cultivation is also reaching its end, so they will balance each other out,” Henk expects. “We currently have a very limited supply of strawberries, because very few rack growers are our members. We would very much like to expand in that field. The strawberry prices were high for a long period, they were a bit lower in recent weeks, but it's now recovering again somewhat.”
“It’s the holiday period, so demand isn’t very high. Qualitatively, the season has fortunately been very good so far, although we have to remain vigilant with this wet, alternately hot and cold weather,” Henk concludes.
For more information:
Henk Nijhoff
Veiling Zaltbommel
Tel: +31 (0)418-579843
h.nijhoff@veiling-zaltbommel.nl
www.veiling-zaltbommel.nl