"Leek price level gone up hugely due to cold"

According to Jeroen Buyck of Calsa the leek sales before the cold arrived were already pretty good. "But because there was still a lot of volume arriving on the market, the prices remained low. Besides, everyone got used to paying less for leek. So at every small increase in price, customers would wait to see if the trend would continue."

Lately there has been a change. "At the beginning of this week, the prices started to increase due to the cold weather that was predicted. The first few days of this week the leek sales faltered a bit here, because a lot of customers were waiting and watching the increase in price and to see whether it would stay cold and because there was still a lot of cheap leek on the market. Now the market has pulled and it's clear that the cold weather will last longer. This means the customers are starting to buy more. It's also good for the export that it's cold everywhere and especially in our neighbouring countries, so the production is disrupted everywhere and the consumption increases."

According to the trader the price has gone up well. "Two weeks ago it was still below 10 cents per kilo. Last week this went up to 19 cents and now the price level is about 50 cents per kilo. This is an average price for all qualities. We expect higher prices up until next week at least. When the weather gets a bit warmer the prices will probably decrease a little, but we don't think the very low prices of under 10 cents per kilo will return. There's a different feel about the market."

For more information:
Jeroen Buyck
Calsa NV
Roeselaarsestraat 9b
8850 Ardooie
Tel: +32 51 74 73 74 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +32 51 74 73 74 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: +32 51 74 69 36
www.calsa.be