EU: Large volumes of Spanish strawberries won't arrive until next week

The strawberry season is having difficulties getting going. The official start was at the beginning of January, but no large volumes arrived then. "We expect them at the end of this week or the beginning of next week", says a Dutch trader. "Due to the colder weather in Spain the supply of larger volumes is a little slow and the demand wasn't strong either."

"It will be calm this week. Our large customers are slowly bringing in a larger supply. They weren't ready for it earlier. This will soon change. We can now also see an improvement in the weather. The sun is a big influence."

At the beginning of the season the prices were about a Euro for 250 grammes. "At the moment this is varying between 60 and 70 cents", he says. "I expect the prices to remain around this level for now. There won't be a big revival any time soon." According to the sales manager importers have to receive at least 70 to 75 cents to cover costs. "The transport costs keep going up and the customer doesn't want to pay more for this." According to him there aren't enough alternatives to transport by truck. "Soft fruit has to be delivered quickly and up until now the truck seems best for this. Transport by train might me a solution to this, but we have to search and compare more first."

For more information:
Stijn Weckx
Van Dijk Foods Belgium
Importcentrum ECFG Brussel
Werkhuizenkaai 112/152
Magazijn 23-24
1000 Brussel
Tel: +32 2 245 75 26
Fax: +32 2 245 88 07
Mob: +32 472 20 67 47
www.vdfb.be