Europe: Good demand for leek

According to Guy de Meyer of Demargro there is good demand for leek at the moment. "There's enough supply and our buyers are very interested. The problem at the moment is the quality. There are a lot of categories besides Flandria. Due to the wintery weather in February the leaves have rust and frost damage. But I expect good fresh supply of better quality in April and May."

"The leek prices have been relatively high", continues the exporter. "But at the moment they've gone down again. Monday, the 26th of March, the price was at 65 cents for Flandria and 45 cents for category I." Guy indicates that this is low for the growers. "At the moment they have to pay extra attention to cleaning, so the costs are higher." He expects to supply good volumes of leek until the end of May/ beginning of June. "On the whole there will be demand for winter leek until then and we'll slowly switch to spring leek." Guy expects the prices to remain at the same level for a while. "If it gets a bit colder again, then it might pull up a bit, but not spectacularly." How do customers respond to the different qualities? "Everyone here is served the quality they desire. This way different qualities make their way into the market."

Leek is an important product for Demargro, which is exported all year round. A large part of it is for the French market but Spain, Poland, and the Scandinavian countries are also important destinations." In 2010 Demargro introduced a special leek packaging, which consists of sprayed net. "There is more and more demand for this. Meanwhile we've also taken on two more machines, so we've been able to increase our capacity to a production of around 2,100 bags per hour. These machines also give us the possibility of printing all the demanded data in different languages on the net bags," says Guy enthusiastically.

Besides leek the firm Demargro also exports the products of Flandria. "At the moment the summer season is starting and the first Belgian tomatoes and peppers are being exported to various European destinations. Monday, the 26th of March, the first Hoogstraten strawberries were bought, which is the start of a new and long strawberry season."

For more information:
Guy de Meyer
Demargro BVBA
Tombrugstraat 11
8850 Ardooie - België
Tel: +32 (0)51 74 70 75
Fax:+32 51 74 58 11
[email protected]
www.demargro.be