"The Xenia pear allows us to reach young consumers"

According to Erik Kieftenburg of the Dutch company, Fruit Noordholland, they are satisfied with the current good top fruit market. "It is running smoothly. We still have a lot of Conference pears at the moment. These are still selling well in the local as well as the English and German markets. I do not think we can complain about the prices. Some people may have expected them to be higher. I am happy with them. The only downside is that we have much larger pears. This is in contrast to Southern European countries. And there is a shortage of especially B/Cs, size 55-65."

"The quality of the pears is also good. A newcomer that is doing well is the Xenia. We started with these last year. We are seeing a new market opening for this variety. Many younger people do not want very juicy pears, dipping down the side of their mouths when they eat them. The hard, sweet Xenia caters to the taste of the younger consumers", says Erik.

Prices on the apple market are even higher than pear prices. "The Jonagolds are selling well. They are of good quality. We are also seeing the better batches that could be kept for the longest, coming out of storage. We are bringing the last Elstars out of storage. Despite a few batches of soft apples, the quality is good. This year, we also did a trial with storing the Smartfresh variety. The results are promising as their shelf life is significantly better."

This year, this wholesaler is not going to be able to make the new Dutch season by a long shot. "We actually have Elstar year round. This is not going to be the case this year. We are also not going to reach the next season with Jonagold. We have covered the gap this year. We are bringing in a container of Chileans Galas. We never do this, but this year it was necessary. They are also good apples, so we can carry on selling apples for the time being."

For more information:
Erik Kieftenburg
Fruit Noordholland BV
2 Groothandelsmarkt
1681 NN Zwaagdijk
fruitnhbv@zonnet.nl
www.mjpronk.nl