Dutch pears are currently seeing strong sales. "Southern countries like Spain and Italy are doing well, but in fact, there isn't a country in Europe where pears aren't moving, so the sales market is quite broad. There's also good demand from France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern European countries," says fruit trader Aart Blom of Blom Fruit Partners Holland in Deil. "There are some good promotions underway, for instance, large volumes of Lukassen pears are moving at the moment," he adds.
"As a result, far more pears were picked than initially expected, which has put some pressure on the market. The shortage of cold storage space and crates was a real challenge this year. Storage bins that were usually never filled were used," Aart continues. "To see price movement, the last-picked pears first need to be off the market for a while. After that, there could be some room for a price increase, if nothing else. From a European perspective, there aren't even that many more pears overall."
"The most important thing now is for sales to continue and for the product to keep moving, and we're seeing that happen across the board. In terms of pricing, I expect things to come together in the second half of the season as well. If you're getting €0.80–€0.90 for the larger sizes at this point, that's not bad at all, it's just that the expectations were quite high during the harvest period."
"Fortunately, the quality is quite good. The size development is good, the flavour is good, and the pears are nice and white inside. The taste and quality of the apples are also good, though here we rely more on the domestic market. Transporting apples over longer distances is more difficult. However, in countries like the Czech Republic and Poland, there are a lot of apples with russeting, so it's possible they'll start buying Jonagold from us later in the season."
For more information:
Fruit Partners Holland
Hooiweg 16
4158 LE Deil
Tel: +31 (0) 345 651311
[email protected]
www.fruitpartnersblom.nl
