"Germany is the frontrunner in the top fruit market"

Trade in the topfruit market is lively at the moment. "We have once again entered into real trading structures, especially with apples. You have to keep your ear to the ground, and have to be on the lookout for trading opportunities", says Kees Oskam of the Dutch trading company, Jan Oskam. "In fact, I think we now have the market we could have had in the last few years, were it not for all the GMO misery, with it's artificial support. A good, fair price has nothing to do with a sales system. It is based purely on the balance between supply and demand. This has been overshadowed in the last few years by all these subsidies."

Kees Oskam

"Apples are very sought after. The prices for good apple breeds like the Elstar and Boskoop are well above a euro. The price for the last Cox apples of the season has dropped somewhat, but is still decent. Good-sized pears are selling at between EUR 0,65 and 0,80. This price at least allows growers who had a good crop to break even", says Kees. Ït will be a short season for apples. A large amount of this fruit will have been sold by April/May. I expect pears to have a season of normal length."

"The domestic market is growing well, but Germany is the frontrunner in the export area. They have had an enormous reduction in their harvest, and are already asking for our fruit. Poland is still keeping away, and is also not yet strong on the pear market. Exports to Scandinavia could be better, and those to France are rumbling along. There is also still some trade to Belgium says the fruit trader.

For more information:
Kees Oskam
Handelsmaatschappij Jan Oskam
06-53371003
kees@janoskam.nl
www.janoskam.nl