There is usually less demand in November, but the green asparagus Christmas demand has now erupted, says Lisa van Zon of Yex: "There are, however, very few, especially of the larger sizes."
"El Niño meant Peru was scorching the whole year. And now that it's summer there, it will only get hotter. So, mostly small sizes are coming off the fields."
"Most of the supply consists of small and standard sizes. XL and Jumbos are very scarce. We made our customers aware of this early. We could, thus, respond promptly," Lisa explains.
"There's no chance of an abundant supply, and there's generally too little product to meet demand. Prices of, especially the virtually unavailable larger sizes, should rise further next week. We're also getting Mexican asparagus, but even that supply is meager. The same goes for Ecuador. We've been offering Moroccan asparagus for a few weeks, but those volumes are still limited, too, because of the cold weather there."
"It's the same thing with white asparagus. One of our growers is focusing mainly on frozen asparagus this year, so we're getting product from another grower. Also, demand for asparagus tips - the top 10-15 cm of green asparagus - has risen tremendously since last week," Lisa continues.
She returned from a visit to Peru in early December. "It has a twofold purpose. We, naturally, visited our growers there. We also met with different authorities three times. That was because of the tightening of green asparagus import controls on September 1. Those talks were successful."
"We could speak of good cooperation with growers, on the one hand, and Dutch and Belgian importers, on the other. The minimal supply and import controls mean there has been little to no green asparagus sea freight this year. We do, however, receive those by road from Morocco," Lisa concludes.
For more information:
Lisa van Zon
Yex
Tel: +31 (0) 174 479 167
Email: l.vanzon@yex.nl
Website: www.yex.nl