On the outdoor vegetable market, prices are currently rising rapidly. “Everything that was predicted for the entire season is now happening. In two weeks, onion prices increased by 15 cent, to a level of 65 cent. White and red cabbage are both at levels around 80 cent. Leek prices have also shot up to 80 cent because of lower supply and good demand. Three weeks ago, those prices were half that,” sums up Kees van den Bosch of Freeland in Emmen, the Netherlands.
Onions like gobstoppers
“Dutch onions are in very short supply, although no one knows exactly how short. This year, we made sure to have enough onions available by buying onions from China, India and Egypt, and that went well. We’re now receiving the final red Chinese onions, and that quality was actually quite decent. Egypt has taken over the market of red onions quite well, but yellow onions are out of stock and scarce. When that happens, the things everyone feared will occur. I don’t know where this’ll all end, after all, onions are a bit like gobstoppers,” Kees explains.
Leek market recovered
Leek is coming from a difficult market, but has now recovered. “From March, more leek started arriving on the market unexpectedly, so that prices were low for a period. A lot of Polish harvest workers went home for Easter, while demand is good, so that prices shot up again,” the trader says.
Egyptian red cabbage
Nearly out of cabbage
Last but not least, cabbage has good prices as well, with levels around 80 cent for both red and white cabbage. “The high prices aren’t restricting export, because export went very well in recent weeks. I expect we’ll soon be out of cabbage with these high prices,” Kees says. Freeland partially solves shortages by buying red cabbage from Egypt, and the first containers of trial parsnip will soon arrive as well.
For more information:
Kees van den Bosch
Freeland B.V.
Nijbracht 126
7821 CE Emmen, the Netherlands
+31 591 67 05 70
kees@freeland.nl
www.freeland.nl