Exotics are benefiting from the current delays in most summer fruit. "The large Spanish peach and nectarine volumes are still some way off, and strawberries also remain quite pricey. Demand for passion fruit, for example, is, thus, much better than previous years," begins Ive Lambert of Starfruit.
"That makes for quite high prices for the time of year. That had to happen at some point; prices were bad for more than a year."
"That led to some acreage shrinkage in Colombia, so production declined a bit. That, and good demand, led to considerably higher prices," says Ive.
Shorter Ivorian mango season
The West African mango season is in full swing at this Belgian importing company. "Two weeks ago, we received the last Peruvian mangoes; these days, we're getting them from Ivory Coast, which are of genuinely good quality. However, the season seems to be a little shorter overall due to limited volumes. We still have as much coming in as in years before, but the general picture's slightly tighter. We just have to hope it doesn't rain; that would be completely disastrous."
"We have to wait and see how the switch to Senegal goes. We hope to be able to move on to that country right after Ivory Coast. Otherwise, we'll have to get mangoes from Mali for a week or two. Senegal, however, seems a bit earlier, and the crop's much better than last year, so I expect we'll manage to switch," Ive explains.
Still, despite the limited volumes of summer fruit described, prices are under pressure this week. "Mango prices are generally somewhat higher than last year, but there's some pressure on them this week. There's suddenly a little less demand, but quite a few mangoes are still coming in. Quality-wise, though, they're top-notch. There's the occasional greener one, but these are always the year's better mangoes."
Scraping in the trade
Starfruit is transitioning from the overseas melon season to the Spanish one at the moment. "That market's still pretty good but has dropped a bit. We got the last melons from Central America this week, and Spain started," says Lambert. "But that country started trading too early, so there's plenty of inferior fruit. Spanish Galia'ds Brix level is way too low resulting in a situation similar to cucumber. We just have to wait for the better volumes from Spain."
"There's generally quite a lot of scraping in the trade, though. There are almost no products that you could say are in abundance. That's mainly due to the climate. Belgium's too cold and wet; in southern Europe, it's sweltering and bone dry. So, most productions remain limited," Ive concludes.
For more information:
Ive Lambert
Starfruit
112 Werkhuizenkaai
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0) 224 20 876
Email: info@starfruit.be
Website: www.groupadw.be/starfruit