“Poland has become major competitor”

The harvesting of vegetables for storage is currently in full swing. Harvests in Europe are enormous, better than last year, and quality is also good, according to Ruud Koedooder from Kogrimex-Koedooder from Grootebroek, the Netherlands. “Carrots, beets, cabbage, the harvests all look well. The amount of harvested product is very large in Europe. In the Netherlands, the cabbages in particular have grown large.” That’s why there’s hardly any international trade at the moment. “It’s very calm,” says Ruud about both the beet, carrot and cabbage markets.

The enormous harvest will mostly go into storage. “After that, we’ll have to wait and see,” Ruud continues. “You never know in advance how everything will develop. It wouldn’t be the first time harvests were good in autumn, but everything became a bit less in storage. That’s all due to conditions during harvesting. When it’s too wet when it enters storage, it’ll have a negative influence on storage. So how it looks now doesn’t mean anything for next spring.” Some product will also remain in the fields due to the very low prices.

The Netherlands has always been a strong player for vegetables in storage on the European market. Many growers have invested in storing facilities. However, in recent years, Poland has also developed itself in that field considerably. Ruud: “They even became a competitor on the European market. Many subsidies went to agriculture in Poland from Brussels, and they’ve used it to build additional storage capacity, among other things.” 

The current harvests appear to be a good start of the season for all countries. It will only become clear who holds all the cards in a few months. “Until then, it’ll be like reading tea leaves,” Ruud concludes.