The pear market has been under tremendous pressure in recent weeks. This is due to the enormous volumes of unusually small pears from Belgium. "The market is sluggish", says Kees Oskam of the Dutch trading company, Jan Oskam.
"Now, with Christmas approaching and foreign workers taking leave in order to go home, less is being sorted and sold. As a result, the market seems to be recovering somewhat and prices have risen by EUR 0,02 and EUR0,05, depending on the size, as compared to two weeks. There is currently a lag in total sales compared to a year ago. The larger sizes always fetch better prices. It looks like the difference in price will be slightly higher this year."
Year in review
When asked how he sees the past year, Kees answered, "We are reasonably satisfied with 2017 and have a good feeling about 2018. The past year was, of course, very unusual. It was unseasonably warm at the end of March to the beginning of April. From 11 April onward, we also had to deal with unexpected night frost. We still had this late frost a few weekends ago."
The coming year
Oskam expects quality to be a deciding factor in the first half of 2018. "Everyone in the market is being cautious and know that there are many frost-damaged pears. I do not expect any problems with quality in the first four months. It can, however, become a problem later on. Prices are also very dependent on imports from Southern Hemisphere countries such as Argentina, Chile and South Africa. These will come on the market in February/March." Kees is looking forward to the coming year. "This year, 3,700m2 of construction was completed. In the second quarter of 2018, the new sorting lines will be delivered. We are looking forward to putting them to use."
The new building at Jan Oskam.
For more information:
Handelsmaatschappij Jan Oskam B.V.
2 Europaweg
3451 HG Vleuten
T: +31 (0)232 0420