The Dutch top fruit season has started again. "There is an excellent demand for apples. People want good, hard, first-harvest Elstars. There are many second and third harvest trailing the market. All lot of good Elstars are also still expected," says Erik Kieftenburg of MJ Pronk. "I think Jonagold sales are going surprisingly well. They are bringing in relatively good money."
"Doyenné du Comice pear sales are going reasonably well too. They are not reaching top prices, but they are selling. There are no extremely large pears this year. That is a good thing. There is wind damage to pears here and there. This is as a result of the summer storms. We, therefore, offer these pears as hand-sorted. We do not want the sorter to cause more damage. It is more laborious, but results in a better product," states the fruit trader.
"There are large price differences between the various batches. With Comice, the prices are between €0,65 and €0,85. Conference pears are selling for between €0,50 and €0,70. There are issues with the Conferences. They were sometimes picked too early at the start of the season. This happened throughout the Netherlands. The caused problems everywhere. We can now see the effect of that. I do, however, think we are busy overcoming this issue a little now," says Erik.
He is, therefore, more confident about the coming weeks. "November is usually a good month for top fruit sales. The domestic market, as well as the Germans, participate well. For the sales markets, for example, the weekend's weather is quite important. You cannot do much to change this. But it does have an impact."
For more information:
Erik Kieftenburg
MJ Pronk
2 Groothandelsmarkt
1681 NN Zwaagdijk, NL
erik@mjpronk.nl
www.mjpronk.nl