"Paraguayos in donut packs are popular"

The end is in sight for the supply of Spanish stone fruit to the Netherlands. "There are still some of these fruit coming in, but we are nearing the end of the season. The demand is shifting to other products again. The shelf-life of the late varieties also decreases toward the end of the season", says Erik-Jan Thur of Marni Fruit. 

He reflects on a good season, price-wise. "We can, absolutely, not complain. In other years, the price of peaches and nectarines (4kg laid) often ended up on an EUR1,50-2,50 level. This year, we did not go under EUR3,50. The price of paraguayos was very good. They reached a level of EUR5,50-7 for 5 kg. The supply of apricots was very limited this year. The Spanish cherry season did not start very well, qualitatively. The quality did, however, improve later and something could be earned."

There is a reason for the good prices. These are due to the hail damage suffered by the production areas around Zaragoza and Llerida In Spain earlier this year. "This resulted in a significantly lower supply of Class I products. Fortunately, we have multiple suppliers. We could, therefore, fill our programmes reasonably well. If you were to be dependent on only one supplier, you could easily have been sidelined this season", says this Dutch importer.

Traditional peaches have been losing ground to the paraguayo in recent years. This season, however, they won back a part of their share. "There has been a lot of paraguayos on the market over the last few years. There is still an ever-increasing demand for packaged paraguayos in so-called donut containers. These often contain smaller fruit, but they are very popular", concludes Erik-Jan.