Bert Benedictus of MB Peen from Kraggenburg, the Netherlands, says the situation on the current carrot market is difficult. “Some carrot is sent to permanent sales destinations, such as Romania, Slovenia and Poland, and some is also sent overseas to Africa, but there’s not much proper demand.”
In the short term, the carrot trader doesn’t expect a change in that. “The quality problems are currently hanging over the market. There’s quite a bit of carrot with rotting tips, and some plots have even not been harvested at all, because the product isn’t suitable for sales. That results in low prices. I’ve heard North Holland has carrot baled up for 8.5 cent, although that will be due to quality.”
“For a market recovery to occur it should start freezing in Eastern Europe, but that won’t happen for a while, and we won’t have to expect much demand if everything is harvested there. Yet I don’t think the second half of the season will be negative. Last year, early plots were still being grubbed up until January, and these have been pretty much cleared by now, we just have to be patient for a bit longer,” Bert concludes.