According to Menno Molenaar of Van Oers United, the sprout market is developing nicely this season. “Supply has been fairly high, but prices are decent. Considering yields per hectare are now, in the transition of autumn to winter varieties, decreasing somewhat, and demand traditionally increases in December, I have high hopes for coming weeks. December is an important month for the ready to cook segment and the sprout speciality in particular.”
“Right now our sprouts are ordered throughout Europe, from Spain to Scandinavia. Traditionally, Germany is the largest market, but we’ve actually seen consumption increasing per head of the population on all sales markets, so that’s a positive development,” Menno continues. When asked if there are enough British sprouts to meet demand for Christmas menus in the UK, the exporter answers: “That’s always the question. In principle, the country is self-supporting, but Dutch sprouts have been sent to the UK every year.”
“More and more sprouts are sent to overseas destinations as well. This year, that can be seen in the US, where production is low but prices are high, so that we become interesting with air cargo. However, in totality we’re not talking about large volumes. The large volumes are sold in Europe,” Menno says. “Sizing of the sprouts was fairly large, and is now becoming a bit smaller, and the advantage of that was that you could go anywhere with them. Finally, so-called specialities such as purple sprouts and kalettes are also becoming increasingly more popular. Our strategy is that everything we plant is dictated by customer demand.”
For more information:
Van Oers United
Menno Molenaar
Zomerlandseweg 1
3274 LX Heinenoord, the Netherlands
T : +31 (0) 880 644501
M: +31 (0)6 532 52 597
F: + 31 (0) 186 608 051
mmolenaar@vanoersunited.com
www.vanoersunited.com