Friday, 10 October, was a special day for the Denimpex team. "We celebrated the 70th anniversary of our beautiful family business with the entire team," says Joey Deen, representing the third generation. "Denimpex was one of the pioneers in importing onions to Europe from New Zealand and Egypt, and we're still doing it today. In Egypt, for instance, we've been working with the same family for 52 years. Those are relationships I'm incredibly proud of."
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"Throughout the past decades, we've always had to adapt to market conditions and a continuously changing business environment. In 2025, we've chosen to specialise in specific import product groups, namely garlic, onions, ginger, citrus, and dates. Beyond these core products, we also import a number of niche items such as pomegranates. With a relatively small team and ongoing process optimisation, we aim to be the link between exporters worldwide and retail and wholesale buyers," Joey explains.
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Garlic market benefits from rising demand
"The garlic market has been strong, with good demand and firm prices, and I don't expect much change in that. Current garlic prices in China are on the rise, and increasing sea freight costs are also pushing up purchase prices. We'll have to see how this translates in Europe in the coming period, but demand for Chinese garlic in October has been better than in recent years. The quality in Spain is also inconsistent, so we're seeing some retailers switch earlier to Chinese garlic, which, by the way, is of excellent quality this year."
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Limes
"Overall, the lime market in 2025 hasn't been anything special. We've had a few good weeks, but the majority of the season so far has been underwhelming. The main reason is oversupply. Brazil, as the largest supplier, has exported for too many consecutive weeks to Europe, with a total increase of around 16.5% year-to-date. But it's not just Brazil; we're also seeing increasing volumes of good-quality limes arriving from Colombia and Peru. Mexico, on the other hand, has seen a sharp decline in volumes to Europe in recent years, focusing entirely on the US market. Perhaps they'll return to Europe if Trump starts imposing import tariffs on fresh produce products from Mexico, but I don't see that happening anytime soon."
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Quality challenges in ginger
"The ginger market has been fairly stable this year; apart from some ups and downs, it's been decent. However, quality is becoming an increasing challenge, no matter the origin. Customer demands are getting stricter, while product quality is declining. Ten years ago, we could deliver 95% of the ginger as is, but today, perhaps more than half of all batches need to be inspected to meet requirements and avoid rejections or claims. With repackaging costs being so high, I foresee potential problems here in the future."
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Sweet potatoes
"We import sweet potatoes mainly from Egypt, where we've worked with the same suppliers for several years. Every year, we see improvements in professionalism, and that's reflected in the quality we receive from our partners. A few years ago, packaging materials were often weak, and pallets arrived crooked; fortunately, most pallets now arrive perfectly straight. Because the crop is very large, there are still many agency exporters working from Egypt. They have no control over the entire chain, and this shows in the quality, packaging, and consistency of deliveries. These exporters, therefore, tend to disrupt the market here," Joey continues.
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Outlook Egyptian orange season
"We're already preparing for our Egyptian orange import season, expecting the first Navels at the end of December and the first Valencias at the beginning of February. So far, I'm cautiously optimistic about the expectations for next season, but of course, it's still too early to make any firm predictions," concludes the anniversary importer.
For more information:
Joey Deen
Denimpex
Tel: +31 20 6246390
Mob: +31 6 14427584
[email protected]
www.denimpex.nl
