In the past ten years, the banana market had never been as bad before as in 2018. In the first months of the new year, the market recovered somewhat, but Robert Greeve of Anaco Greeve says the situation was generally “calm” and “stable.” When he zooms further out on the market, some developments can be seen, in which organic and food service play a major part.
“We’re coming from a bad market in the last seven months of last year,” Robert sums up the situation of recent months. “Towards the end of December we saw the market recovering somewhat, and January was fair, but it can’t be compared to the previous two years.” The situation in January 2018 could be called exceptional. As a result of a combination of factors, including strikes and weather problems in Latin America, there were shortages. “That’s not the case this year, we have a regular supply,” Robert says. In January, the bananas reported prices from 12 to 13 euro. A year earlier, that was 14 to 15 euro because of the shortages.
In the first month of this year, growers in Ecuador were faced with heavy rain, so that prices for Ecuadorian bananas rose quickly. “Ecuador isn’t important to us, we mostly import from Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The consequences of the rain in Ecuador only affect us indirectly,” Robert explains.
Expansion ripening capacity
The company from Poeldijk, the Netherlands, currently has a ripening capacity of 40,000 boxes. For this year, an expansion of the ripening chambers is scheduled. The volume that can be ripened after the expansion will be roughly 25 per cent larger. “Besides, we’re replacing part of the older cells. This project is supposed to be realised in 2019.”
For years, drug smuggling has been a problem affecting the entire banana supply chain. The smugglers are also choosing to abuse the shipments of established importers. “It happens, unfortunately. The risk of your batch being abused can be reduced by working with good traders in Latin America. These traders have to inspect the shipments before these depart,” Robert says. “Besides, as importer you have to be vigilant as well.” As far as the banana importer’s concerned, each container arriving in Rotterdam would be scanned, but the capacity of Customs isn’t big enough for that. “People in Rotterdam are very dedicated to combating smuggling.”
Green and ripened
For sales, the importer and ripener focuses on the Dutch market and neighbouring countries. “We consider any market we can reach with our lorries in one day to be our market,” Robert explains. That means roughly a circle from Northern France via East Germany to Scandinavia. In recent years, German retailers Edeka and Lidl started with their own ripening chambers, sidelining the ripener. “That’s a trend we’ve noticed in Germany, but we haven’t seen it in other countries yet.”
The bananas are sold both green and ripened. “Besides being a ripener, we’re still a service provider for retail as well,” Robert continues. “Additionally, we also supply to the spot market, and food service is a growing market. We’ve noticed that as well.” The latter market appears to be paying better prices for bananas than retail, with bananas of one euro per banana. “It’s a slightly better market, but it’s also more complicated, and it involves more than supermarkets. That comes with additional costs,” Robert explains.
Being distinctive with bananas
“We’re a fair player on the market for organic bananas,” he continues. “We’ve seen the volume of organic bananas increasing slightly every year.” The number of countries where organic bananas can be grown is limited. “Thanks to our good contacts, we can import and ripen good organic bananas.”
Supermarkets are trying to be more and more distinctive with bananas. “They often do that with Fairtrade, organic or organic Fairtrade bananas. Or they choose their own brand, but it continues to be difficult, because every banana is a Cavendish,” Robert explains. Anaco Greeve meets customers in this with their own brand, among other things. “You have to listen to what customers want, and meet their needs. It means a fragmentation in the assortment.”
rg@anacogreeve.nl