"Belgium: "Carrot market could pick up due to the frost"

The family company Grimex has existed since 1955 and is specialised in supplying carrots. "In 1975 my father started the company and later on I took over", says Dirk de Maré. "We used to only supply to processing. Those were mainly preserves and freezing factories. After that we switched to the fresh market and now we supply our carrots to exporters close to us."

His wife Trui and daughter Geneviève also work in the family company. "My daughter has been working here for a half a year now and will probably take over the company in the future", says Dirk proudly. In total 13 people work ar Grimex.

Dirk de Maré with his daughter Geneviève

"The carrot market has been bothered by production in Poland and other Eastern block countries," he indicates. "The volume has been increasing in these countries in the past few years and that's why exporters have been looking for other sales markets like Africa." Grimex has faced the choice of exporting before. "But we won't do it, because we could loose our customers here", says the manager.

The carrots are grown in various places in Holland and Belgium. In Ardooie they are kept, rinsed, packaged and distributed. The total area is between 150 and 170 hectares and the volume is around 12 million kilos per year."

It's a priority for Grimex to supply qualitatively good carrots. "There are good and bad batches every year. The products are sorted here and we check everything again before it leaves to the customer."

The trader says that they offer various packaging possibilities. "We supply 1 to 12 kilos. The most common weights are 3, 5 and 10 kilos. When the carrots are more expensive, people prefer to switch to smaller bags."

Dirk indicates that the carrot market often 'needs' unexpected events or extreme weather conditions for better prices. "In 2010 it was very warm in Russia and a large part of the harvest was lost. We profited from this. A lot of factors play a role in the market situation and they often have to do with the weather."

De Maré looks toward the new year with mixed feelings. "We should have had a winter a while ago for the carrots. Now there's frost the market could pick up for a short while. if this doesn't keep up for a few weeks, we'll have a bad year."

For more information:
Dirk de Maré
Grimex bvba
Pittemsestraat 30-32
8850 Ardooie - België
Tel.: +32 (0)51 74 42 98
Fax: +32 (0)51 74 72 08
[email protected]
www.grimex.be