“There’s once again life in the storage trade”

“Who would’ve thought that the demand for carrots would recover,” says Jos Koedooder of Koedooder&Zn. Handelsmaatschappij. The winter weather of week nine appears to be a blessing for the storage trade, because the cold ‘cleared’ much product in Eastern and Southern Europe, resulting in export opportunities. “In the past few days much has been sent, and good prices are paid for good-quality carrots. I think we’ll be out of carrot by May.” Koedooder’s speciality is beetroot, and that trade is also getting better and better. “There’s life in vegetables again.”

“In January and February, the phones barely rang, but we now get regular demand. Few good quality carrots are left for transport. The prices of carrots are increasing considerably. Early last week, prices fluctuated around 25 cent, but by the end of the week they were around 30 cent. It takes time to find good batches, much product was cleared in the Netherlands as well.”

Because of the winter weather, people eat more wintery food as well, and because of temperatures of minus 20 in Eastern Europe, much of the harvests was lost, in part because temperatures quickly rose after that. The cold also caused a setback for early sowed cauliflower and lettuce in North Italy. All of these factors are the reason Jos is cautiously optimistic about the remainder of the season of storage vegetables.