"The drought in Poland has certainly has an effect on the open ground vegetables. Polish buyers are already sniffing around Dutch open ground products such as carrots, potatoes and onions. The rain had an impact on the productions here. There were parts of the country where irrigation was possible, but in the south for instance, there was an irrigation ban. I'm not impressed with the Polish product that is in store at the moment. I expect a good demand for Dutch open ground products in Poland this autumn," says René Noordam of the Dutch-Polish agency Ramawa, specialised in the sales to Eastern Europe.
René finds it calm in the trade. "I am selling some Dutch Conference pears to Poland at the moment, mainly unsorted and class 2. Last year a lot of top fruit was bought straight from the tree, but this has been lacking this year. The demand for Dutch pears hasn't gone wild yet either. A lot of customers are phoning to inquire on the price, but that's about it, there are no counter offers. The prices of the Dutch and Polish top fruit are still too far apart. It's also a calm period for imported fruit. People mainly want products that aren't available, such as pineapple, but don't want to pay the market price. No reason to panic, however, the trade was calm last year too, and the market pulled up in mid November."