Increasing pepper area at Flandria action

The pepper area at the Flandria auctions has increased greatly in the last five years: from 90 hectares in 2007 to 125 hectares in 2012. In 2012 red is still the main colour (65 ha); yellow and green are each grown on 25 ha. The area of orange is limited to 7 ha. This increase in area obviously means a great increase in volume. For the Flandria auctions there is an increase from over 20 million kg in 2007 to 37 million kg in 2011.

Flandria peppers are standard packed in boxes. Growers and the LAVA auctions have a huge flexibility to meet the demand from the trade for modified packaging. "70% of our peppers are marketed through our unique central sorting system, which means we can flexibly meet our customers specific wishes," says Jan Engelen of the auction. "This year we replaced the folding box with an adapted box, which is one cm higher and is suitable for the coarser fruits of the new varieties."

E-commerce

After a difficult start to the pepper season due to an overlap in the Spanish and Israeli production, more Belgian product entered the market in recent weeks, with a very versatile price. Pepper is in Veiling Hoogstraten's top 5 of products that make up 97% of the auction's turnover. "The inland market remains important for the price formation,"adds Jan Engelen, commercial manager at Veiling Hoogstraten. "Since July peppers have been sold at the e-commerce platform of LAVA, next to cucumbers, loose tomatoes and aubergines. Belgian retailers as well as the local wholesalers and retail are prepared to pay a good price for Flandria. Actions by retailers also offer support in shops."

Varied export

The largest sales of pepper is through domestic retail chains. The export is a very varied picture with traditional export countries such as Germany and France. "One of the advantages is the Belgian export of peppers to Canada which has a good demand for Flandria quality," adds Jan Engelen. "Russia has had a huge influence on the price forming and sales in the last few years, as an important buyer." A lot of peppers are bought by Dutch buyers to be re-exported from there.