"EU: "Good weather causes 'boost' in sales of South African plums"

The good weather of the past few days has caused a boost in plum sales. According to Eddy Kreukniet of Exsa Europe the volumes, which are arriving from South Africa at the moment, are under control. "At the moment we're switching to the last varieties and we're mainly offering Angeleno's. We will have South African plums available for the next few weeks."

"Luckily we haven't had any quality problems this season. The start of the season was fantastic. Due to the weather conditions the volume was a lot lower and 30% less plums were exported to North West Europe. Due to this the prices were at a much higher level compared to last years, until mid January", says Eddy. "Then the sales went stiffly for another two or three weeks, but the good summer weather turned that around."

"The price of the coloured plum is around 7 to 9 Euro at the moment. the black plums are at the same level, maybe slightly higher, and the yellow plums are slightly more expensive, but that season is almost over", says the importer. Exsa Europe exports a large part of the plums. "Germany is a good buyer and a substantial amount also goes to the Russian market indirectly", says Eddy. "The plum consumption in Holland is low outside of summer and is, for instance, far behind on German consumption. I've been wondering why for years!"

The Chilean plums will succeed the South African season, followed by the plums from the Northern Hemisphere (Spain). "But the Spanish plums will arrive one or two weeks earlier", says Eddy.

For more information:
Eddy Kreukniet
Exsa Europe
Tel: +31 88 735 0003
Mob: +31 620 25 78 11
[email protected]
www.exsaeurope.com