Demargro sees increase in demand for smaller cabbages

Demagro is mainly known for its leek in the autumn, but they also supply many other winter vegetables. "We do a lot with red, white and savoy cabbage, which are mainly intended for the French market," indicates Guy de Meyer. "There is also regular demand for these products from Russia, but they have enough of their own production there at the moment. It will have to freeze there, so that their own production is off the market and makes place for our Belgian and Dutch cabbages."

Low prices
According to the trader the prices of all varieties of cabbage are low at the moment. "Last week the prices at the auctions were never above 20 cents per red or white cabbage and under 25 cents per green cabbage on average. The prices have not changed today, so back to under 20 cents for the cabbages over 2.5 kilos. At the moment there is a good and constant demand for cabbage, but we do notice that we are needing some colder weather to get the prices up."

Demand for smaller cabbages
Guy sees various development in the cabbage market. "Over the course of the years we can see that there is increasing demand for smaller cabbages. We used to primarily sell six cabbages at a weight of around 2.5 kilos, but now our customers are demanding 1.5 kg to 2.0 kg cabbages. We can also see smaller cabbages being offered in the supermarkets as opposed to the large heavy cabbages of 2.5 kg or more. The families are becoming smaller, and it is a lot easier to cut up a small cabbage," he explains.

Due to this new tendency we have asked various growers to plant their cabbages closer together, so that they grow to be slightly smaller. This way we can now package these cabbages in a box of 30x50 instead of 40x60, which saves a lot of space on the shelves of shops."

For more information:
Guy de Meyer
Demargro BVBA
Tombrugstraat 11
8850 Ardooie, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)51 74 70 75
Fax:+32 51 74 58 11
www.demargro.be