Last Monday, 18 August, the harvest of Conference pears began at Fruitbedrijf van den Berge in Tholen. "There are 25 of us picking," says Corné van den Berge, who runs the more than 100-year-old fruit company together with his parents and is also active with the trading platform Service2Fruit. The company has invested in two Pluk-O-Traks and also carries out harvesting with picking trains and an aerial work platform.
© Fruitbedrijf Van den Berge
"We started harvesting Conference and picked the red pear variety Gräfin Gepa in between. The harvest is going well this year. The quality is above average, the size is good, so we have no complaints," Corné says. "It remains to be seen how big the total harvest will be. Belgium is also selling a reasonable volume, but apparently, it too is suffering from drought. Here in Tholen, we can irrigate well, and that is reflected in the harvest. Not every fruit grower in Zeeland has that advantage."
Fruitbedrijf van den Berge cultivates on an area of 20 hectares, consisting of 15 hectares of Conference, 2 hectares of Gräfin Gepa, 2 hectares of Beurré Alexandre Lucas, and, on a smaller scale, Elstar apples for direct sales. "The demand for pears is quite good. Supply and demand are nicely balanced. Because we have excellent quality, sales are going fairly well," says Corné. "With apples, we are seeing a much more difficult start to sales."
© Fruitbedrijf Van den Berge
According to the fruit grower, one trend this year is that there have been fewer late-season sales compared to previous years. "The average fruit grower has not had bad years recently and therefore feels less pressure to sell," he explains. He sees the biggest challenge for the coming years in the limited authorisation of plant protection products. "For this year and next year it will still be manageable, but how to deal with it afterwards, that worries me!"
For more information:
Corné van den Berge
Fruitbedrijf Van den Berge
Mosselhoekseweg 4A
4691 RL Tholen
Tel: +31 (0) 166 - 603610
[email protected]
www.fruitbedrijfvandenberge.nl
