The summer holidays are still in full swing, and the citrus market remains relatively quiet. "It's the calm before the storm, typical of the holiday period when arrivals are at their highest but sales are at their lowest," observes Gijsbert van Leeuwen of Olympic Fruit. "Incidentally, the lemon market has held up reasonably well this summer, the orange market is also starting to pick up a bit now, but the mandarin market is sluggish, and the lime market is on pause. Only in grapefruit are we now seeing prices improve."
© Olympic Fruit
Gijsbert van Leeuwen with Hendrik Warnich of ALG Estates
"Compared to last year, volumes are significantly higher, but I don't see that as a fair comparison, as last year Egypt had a huge presence in the orange market and Spain in the lemon market. Back then, Europe's largest retailers only switched to overseas supply in weeks 28–29. This year, they switched much earlier, so a comparison with two years ago is more accurate, and those volumes are fairly similar," Gijsbert said.
"However, lemon supply is now starting to drop sharply. With mandarins, we are only just really entering the selling season. Demand for oranges is also starting to rise. Egypt is quite empty at the moment, and South Africa mainly has large sizes in the north, so the smaller sizes (88–105) for juicing are in high demand right now, especially in holiday destinations in southern Europe. Finally, the grapefruit market is starting to perform well. It hasn't fallen as low as in previous years. Stocks are limited, supply is very tight, and we have to keep going until week 40, so the outlook is positive."
For more information:
Gijsbert van Leeuwen
Olympic Fruit
Handelscentrum ZHZ 55
2991 LD Barendrecht
Tel: +31 (0) 6-15031775
[email protected]
www.olympicfruit.com
