For several weeks now, Spanish fruit vegetables have been offered on auction at ZON, but the supply of Spanish cucumbers in particular remains extremely tight. "Normally, by week 48, we already have full availability of Spanish cucumbers, but this year it is a struggle to get even a few pallets in. Suppliers simply indicate that there is nothing more available," says Els van Herpen, Auction Sales Manager at ZON.
Cucumber prices are therefore at unprecedented levels. This morning, the auction price stood at around 1.25–1.30 euros. "That is extremely high and has been so for several weeks now," Els says. "Aubergines are also very expensive at the moment. The difference, however, is that we can receive the requested volumes there. You can also see from the purchasing behaviour of major exporters that there is very little of this product available on the market."
© ZON
The supply of vine tomatoes has been very limited in recent weeks, but for a different reason. "Last month, we were unable to keep up with the prices generally paid in Spain. As a result, we did not receive any Spanish vine tomatoes this week. Meanwhile, prices for vine tomatoes on the Dutch market have increased slightly. I therefore expect that we will again receive some limited supply of Spanish vine tomatoes next week," Els explains.
"With Spanish peppers, the quality issues caused by thrips are well known. Now that temperatures are dropping, there is hope that the thrips pressure will ease somewhat. At the moment, we are fortunately receiving a reasonable volume of peppers from Spain again, although green peppers remain less available," Els says.
Following the Dutch outdoor vegetable season, the Spanish season has had a difficult start. "Even now, in the run-up to Christmas, demand for products such as broccoli and cauliflower remains very moderate. We ourselves only started supplying Spanish cauliflower this week, resulting in a short overlap with the Dutch season. We have been offering Spanish broccoli and iceberg lettuce on the auction for several weeks now, and today we also auctioned the first Spanish celery."
In recent weeks, southern Spain has seen heavy rain, and temperatures are dropping significantly, which is, of course, affecting supply. "Earlier this week, there was severe weather in the area between Murcia and Almeria, and in Almeria, it is still raining occasionally. The outlook is that rainfall will ease, but the weather there remains unpredictable," Els concludes. "Overall, we see that prices for Spanish vegetables are higher across the board than last season at this time, while volumes are much lower, mainly due to the shortage of cucumbers."
For more information:
ZON
Venrayseweg 102
5928 RH Venlo
Tel: +31 (0) 77 3239758
[email protected]
www.royalzon.com
