The cabbage harvest in North Holland is in full swing, but the export of white and red cabbage can't seem to get going. This was said by Jan van der Ben of the firm Sevenhuysen from Warmenhuizen. The price of the white cabbage is at around 11 cents, that of red cabbage is at around 20 cents. "Whereas it looked like the yields would be lower as a result of the dry weather this summer, around 40/50% more has grown after the rain. The yields are good on a European scale. I think there is around the same amount of cabbage as last year. Germany also has the same volumes. The same goes for onions and potatoes."
Jan doesn't believe there will be a revival in the export any time soon. "This is always a calm period. The farmers are cutting, which means the supply is low and the demand is too. We serve the normal markets such as Germany, the Middle East and regular customers in the United Kingdom, but these aren't huge amounts. We have to wait until the cabbage is all in and it will have to get a little colder. All eyes are on the East Block, as the Russian have been the main buyers for a number of years. We've been growing for that in recent years. But nothing is set. If those countries don't come onto the market, we will have a problem."
Onions
His colleague Teun Paarlberg is pessimistic about the onion export. "The most recent harvest figures have recently been announced and we grew 1,2 million tonnes of onions in Holland. Due to the current export and the export over the last few months, this isn't positive. We started the seeding onions later. We're behind on the export and there is no improvement in sight so far."
"Russia hasn't started yet. It's the same for Brazil, and to a lesser extent, Central America. The markets in Africa are overflowing and big losses are being made by the importers, as Peter Beemsterboer described last week. If the current trend continues we'll still have to shift around 700,000 tonnes netto of onion in January 2014. It will be difficult to shift all of that in the first 26 weeks of 2014!"
For more information:
G. Sevenhuysen V.O.F.
Nijverheidsstraat 5
1749 DR Warmenhuizen
Tel. 0031 226-320224
Fax. 0031 226-316166
[email protected]