"EU: "The weather is the deciding factor in the stonefruit market"

In what way the Spanish stonefruit market will develop is for a large part dependent on the weather. This according to Lisan van Koppen of 4Fruit Company. "At the moment reasonable volumes of stonefruit are available. The last few years the weather was not very good in the summer, but we hope this year will be an exception. In any case sufficient stonefruit will arrive this week."

Apricots

"At the start of the season there was a shortage of nectarines and the demand was good. In the meantime the demand decreased somewhat. Also the apricot sales did very well at the beginning. After that there was a dip for short while, but now sales are a little better again. There are reasonable volumes of peaches in the meantime and the demand also increases. Furthermore we have Red Beauty plums and shortly other varieties such as Sungold will be available. Sizes of the plums are still rather small. The large sizes are popular and the smaller sizes are more difficult to sell."

Nectarines

The sale of Paraguayo's is still to start. "Especially from the Eastern Block there is traditionally a good demand for these flat peaches, but the market prefers the big sizes and at the moment only the small sizes are available." Lisan concludes. "But we will also start with platerina's. These are becoming more popular all the time, because consumption is easy."

Peaches

For more information:
Lisan van Koppen
4 Fruit Company
The Netherlands
Tel. 0031 180 641908
[email protected]
www.4fruitcompany.nl