South African producers agreed not to send fruit due to low expected returns.
Many fruit traders anticipate business problems in the European market.
The fears are based mainly on existing high stocks of fruit and lean cold quotes
seen on shelves, mainly for pears.
A private report highlights that today's prices, which European consumers pay for a quality pear are 13% below last year. In relation to the returns expected by the South hemisphere, they also have to compute the depreciation that the Euro is tracking.
With this situation, it was known this week that South African producers will send part of their production of William pears for the processing industry, rather than run the risk of low returns on exports to Europe.
At the same time, an increase in the supply of the Conference and Abate Fetel varieties in the northern hemisphere has made many producers seek new export markets for the volumes of fruit. Gert Marais, Delecta Fruit marketing manager, told Portalfruticola.com that "in Europe we have enough supplies of Conference, which will last until late April."
"The Conference and Abate Fetel harvest was a record and is still in stock. Our fruit will compete with the Late lower quality pears, which will affect our prices in a negative way," he said. He added that many producers send their Williams pears directly to the juice industry, since they expect better returns compared to what can be obtained in the European market.
"The processing industry pays better than expected and the risk of sending pears to Europe is very high."
"If you want to be conservative and want to avoid a risk in the market for fresh foods, then fruit processing plants are an option," he explained.
Source: Rionegro