There is no talk of a smooth market for Moroccan mandarins. "We had a difficult start with the Clementines. Like Spain the supply started two to three weeks later. If there was a shortage of rain during the warm summer, the harvest has been made difficult by heavy rainfall in recent weeks," says Jan van der Voort of Anaco Greeve.
"Like in Spain there are a lot of small sizes available. This makes the total volume higher than last year, but this additional yields mainly consists of small sizes and the good sizes have limited availability," says Jan. "Sales aren't really getting going either. It was too warm for too long for the citrus sales. Thankfully its cooling down a bit now, but the trade on the free market is very mediocre."
According to Jan the market for Moroccan mandarins is quite stable. "You can see that a lot of growers have moved into Nadorcott in recent years and the Ortanique mandarins are decreasing in Morocco. Europe isn't the main market for Moroccan citrus by far either. The largest volumes now go to the United States, Canada and Russia.
Anaco Greeve mainly sells the Moroccan citrus to European wholesalers. "Primarily outside of the Netherlands, although we will soon receive the Berkane-Clementines and we sell them on the domestic market. Hopefully the demand will increase over the coming period, as so far it's been a sad market that could use a revival," concludes the importer.
For more information:
Jan van der Voort
Anaco Greeve
ABC Westland 666
2685 DH Poeldijk
Tel.: (0174) 21 02 00
jan@anacogreeve.nl
www.anacogreeve.nl