Last week, B&B Fruit, the largest plum growers in the Netherlands, started harvesting its first canopied plums. On Wednesday, the first Opal mutants followed. "The supply's still limited. From next week, when we begin with the traditional Opals, that supply will start increasing," begin Marinus Bunt.
"This year's crop looks good; it should be much better than last year when we had a 40% harvest. We do have some frost damage in some plots, but I'm expecting a 70-80% harvest this year. If all the sizes get a chance to grow well, it will surely be a good season."
B&B Fruit has recently invested heavily in expanding its blue plum variety line to stretch the picking window. "Ultimately, in the future, we want to be at market with our blue varieties from mid-July to late October. That's why we've spent so much on planting, especially the later varieties. We see great sales potential If we can extend the season," says Marinus.
"We're also doing plenty of experiments with new varieties. We've been doing so for 12 years. Those varieties don't appear overnight; some fail. But this should eventually lead to a complete line of blue varieties with which we can extend the season by more than a month. We hope to present that on a larger scale for the first time this season."
"Many supermarkets complain that plums are only available for quite a short time. With this new blue line, we can meet that season extension need. Also, Opals are delicious, large, flavorful plums that we naturally want to keep," explains Marinus.
Most of B&B Fruit's plums find their way to Dutch retailers, supplemented by sales to wholesalers and small stores. "The vast majority of our plums remain in the Netherlands, but we also supply Scandinavia and Switzerland via agents. There are opportunities to export, especially the large Dutch plums."
B&B Fruit is the only Dutch farm with all the plum chain links in one company, from planting trees, fruit production, sorting, and packaging to selling fresh plums. And even, if desired, processing the products into, for example, juices and sauces.
Two years ago, B&B opened a new 2,000m2 sorting and packing facility. It boasts a new Sorma Benelux stone fruit sorting machine that automatically sorts for quality. "It's going really well. The sorter selects internal and external quality, so we can meet specific customer requirements and even sort out ready-to-eat plums automatically. And the machine's always up for it. We're discovering more and more possibilities with it," Marinus concludes.
For more information:
Marinus Bunt
B&B Fruit
2 School Street
6674 AK, Herveld, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 622 528 117
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.benbfruit.nl
