The Ukraine/Russia situation is affecting European imports. "Everyone's still slightly reluctant to load. The entire market trend's much quieter. I'm honestly surprised Spanish vegetable prices, for example, are still so high," says Erik-Jan Thur of Marni Fruit in the Netherlands.
"European products don't seem to be too badly affected, although more overseas products are entering the Western European market. We did some trade with Ukraine, but it wasn't a core business. The companies that specialize in those destinations have bigger problems. Quite a lot of Spanish citrus is coming this way. With mandarins, it's mainly leaf Nadorcott and Tango leading the way. Those are selling pretty well. Prices are at around €10 for the small sizes to between €12.50 and €13 for the large sizes."
"We now have the late orange variety, Lane Late. There aren't too many large sizes available. We're selling more pallets of sizes 36 to 42, and there are plenty of sizes 48/54. We offer the citrus exclusively in open-top boxes, and that's paying off. Although we don't supply retail directly, a lot of trade ends up in the supermarket channel. There, cardboard boxes are more popular than wooden crates," Erik-Jan explains.
"We offer Primofiori lemons in open-top packaging too. The large sizes are going for between €10 and €11, and €12.50 and €13 for the best sizes."
"We've generally sold more Spanish citrus than in recent years, with orange and lemon sales being especially good. We've usually been pretty good in the large-size segment," says Erik-Jan.
"But there aren't many of those now, so we've also moved pretty smoothly into the medium sizes. I'm certainly not dissatisfied with how the Spanish citrus season has gone so far."
"The big question is how the upcoming Egyptian Valencia oranges sales will look. Egypt was quite a big supplier to the Russian market in recent years. It's difficult to estimate how that will go next season. In any case, there'll be no shortage of Valencia oranges. We're not a major player in South African citrus, and we'll have to see how this surplus production will find other outlets. We have Chilean grapes on the way, for example. For now, we'll need to see what will come out of all the containers," Erik-Jan concludes.
For more information:
Erik-Jan Thur
Marni Fruit
52 Gebroken Meeldijk
2991 VD, Barendrecht, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 180 697 996
Email: ej@marnifruit.nl
Website: www.marnifruit.nl