On 1 January of this year, Dirk-Jan van Dijk started Palm Fruits. From Bergambacht, the Netherlands, he works as a subsidiary with one of the biggest date cooperatives in the world. “We’ll receive our first batch on Friday. We supply up to nine different date varieties, and the Medjoul date is still the most important of these. We can offer the dates year-round, but it’s even more important that we can offer quality year-round. To realise this, we work with four quality ranges.”
Palm Fruits has both conventional and organic dates in their range. “We’ve already been Skal certified, and from the Netherlands, I’m now mostly focusing on organic dates, which we sell throughout Europe. For the sales of conventional dates I primarily focus on the Scandinavian, German, Belgian and Dutch market,” Dirk-Jan continues. Although the majority of the supply now comes from Israel, the company also wants to start importing more from other production regions.
“The sales of dates are more difficult than in the past. More and more players have arrived on the market, and although there’s increasing demand for Medjoul dates in particular, a lot is being planted globally as well,” Dirk-Jan explains. “Yet I believe there’s definitely a market for the quality dates we supply.”
Palm Fruits supplies the dates in packaging of 500 grammes up to five kilograms, and they also have a new ‘3-dates-2-go’ packaging: three dates in a consumer packaging. “I’m convinced we can reach a lot of new markets with our dates, such as sports clubs. Dates have been proven to be the ideal snack for an energy boost for athletes, and that offers plenty of opportunities for sales outside of the wholesaler’s channel. We have the world to gain!”
For more information:
Dirk Jan van Dijk
Palm Fruits
Burg. Uilkensstraat 22
2861 AE Bergambacht, the Netherlands
djvandijk@palmfruits.nl
www.palmfruits.nl