"Netherland: "Strawberry prices finally a little higher"

Prices at the moment are slightly better in the strawberry market than during the last few weeks. "The open ground season started later than usual and also finished earlier. This caused the protected cultivation and glass not to follow on smoothly. It has all been drawn out a little and that becomes clear now," Ralph Bogers of CLTV Zundert says. The strawberries supplied to CLTV Zundert go to the clock at Veiling Hoogstraten. Main exports are now to France and Scandinavia."

Less supply

"At the moment the daily supply is between 65 and 70 tons and that is not very much. Because of this the prices have increased since last week. The avarage price is relatively high at 3.70/kg. including industry. Last week it was about one Euro less. More was supplied then and the volume was about 90 tons. At this time of the year consumption in the Netherlands and Belgium is always less. Consumers associate strawberries with sunshine and now there is less of that. There is also competition of other products, such as top fruit and grapes. In addition one was used to lower prices and that could be disappointing for the consumer now."

"For the growers this was a difficult year. One notices that some have financial problems. This bit of a good market does not cut ice for everybody, especially not for open ground growers."

Ralph expects that supply will increase slightly during the coming weeks. The quantities of greenhouse strawberries increase again, but I do not think that there will still be peaks. As far as price goes I hope that they remain stable. Towards the end of the year prices will increase again, but that is really necessary because of the cost of gas and electricity."

For more information:
CLTV Zundert
Ralph Bogers
155, Molenstraat
4881 GD Zundert
Tel: 0031 76-5972241
Fax: 0031 76-5972053
www.cltvzundert.nl