The top fruit season has entered its final phase. Marius van Arkel of Fruitstation van Arkel looks back on a great season. "Last year, a lot of money was lost at the end of the pear season, but this year we're finishing well. Stocks are still low, and sales continue quietly but steadily. That's good for everyone, whether you're a grower or a trader."
"The markets are shrinking slightly. In southern Europe, it's getting really hot now, and our product doesn't cope well with that. So we're relying more on north-western Europe. Prices are between EUR 1.20 and 1.30 for unsorted products. That's certainly a satisfactory level. Good is good, you shouldn't get too greedy. For example, strawberries are also just average in price, and cherries aren't too expensive either."
According to Marius, pear storage went very well this year. "Here in the middle of the country, we did have trees that stood in water for more than 48 hours. That usually causes quality issues, but it didn't really show up in storage. We occasionally saw a yellow pear, but overall, it went well. A key advantage was that we kept pace with sales throughout. Storage cells were often emptied sooner than necessary from a quality standpoint. When you fall behind, you tend to stay behind."
Remarkably few promotions with apples
Apple sales have also been quite steady this year, according to Van Arkel. "That's the best scenario for a marketing company. Then you can sort five days a week and still manage everything smoothly. This year, however, there have been remarkably few supermarket promotions for apples, which means Elstar apples are still on the market, whereas I expected them to be sold out by now. We've already finished our Elstar stock on the farm."
"The price of Jonagold apples has also remained nicely stable, but size remains a problem. They were generally too large, and people still prefer small apples in the 65 to 80 size range. With the ideal size and quality, you can achieve a good price, but if you have a lot of large sizes, your average return isn't as good." For the new season, Marius expects a reasonably good apple harvest. "Especially for Elstar. The Jonagold harvest will be more variable, and again I'm concerned about the sizing."
"With pears, we won't see a full Comice harvest again, but that's been the trend in recent years. The Xenia and Migo plantings are looking good. I myself have a beautiful crop of Conference pears, but that's not the case everywhere. That's more down to luck than expertise," Marius says. "Overall, the Conference harvest will be bigger than last year, but still below average. There are many empty plots, some of them good ones, but you don't see a full crop anywhere. That could help prices, but we'll have to wait and see. At the moment, we're battling pear leaf blight to keep the pears clean. That continues to be a challenge in the orchard, especially with an easterly wind."
For more information:
Marius van Arkel
Fruitstation Van Arkel
Tel: +31 (0) 6 22 94 04 13
[email protected]
www.fruitstationvanarkel.nl
