After a disappointing season for limes between October and April, the market has picked up tremendously. Vitaal Europe has been a specialist for the importing of limes. Company director, Ian Thornhill, went to Mexico recently for the opening of a new state-of-the art packaging plant of their Mexican supplier, Inverafruit. Ian had the honour of hoisting the Dutch flag during the opening ceremony.
"They are sorting limes there using the latest technology. Thanks to infrared cameras all the fruit is sorted by internal quality and peel damage. This is unique. Thanks to this quality sorting at the source, we can distinguish ourselves", says Ian.
Vitaal Europe gets products supplied directly to the Netherlands and its parent company, Nationwide Produce in London. Vitaal sells the limes throughout the whole of Europe, with its largest sales being in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The volume of limes being imported has increased sharply over the last five years. In Week 22 of 2013, Mexico and Brazil sent 56 containers of limes, then 76 in 2014, 77 in 2015, 97 in 2016 and in this year, 130 containers were send. "There is a huge increase in the consumption of limes, but in the last few month, we learned that too many limes can be sent," says Ian.
"In the past few weeks, fewer and fewer limes have been sent as a result of the bad weather in Mexico. This has resulted in a healthier market, with prices of EUR 10 and higher. The sunny weather has greatly stimulated the sales of limes tremendously. We are focusing on importing Mexican limes since the ones from Brazil are of a lower quality. Like their lemons, Vitaal's limes are Fairtrade-certified.
For more information:
Ian Thornhill
Vitaal Europe
Tel: +31 (0) 174 639 060
[email protected]
www.vitaaleurope.com
