The citrus market is currently in a transitional phase, according to Fabian Brinker, owner and managing director of the company of the same name in Neuenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. "The overseas campaign officially ended with the last delivery of Tango clementines from South Africa in week 48. Until recently, the quality of the overseas clementines was consistently good. We will probably have to wait until the turn of the year for Nadorcotts of the San Alfonso brand from Spain. Until then, we will be using produce from Morocco, which is not yet entirely convincing in terms of quality."
Apart from the usual ups and downs, 2025 has been a fairly stable year in terms of procurement, Brinker continues. "Apples from the Altes Land region are currently quite cheap due to the bountiful harvest, while cucumber prices have recently skyrocketed. Otherwise, however, we have been spared major bottlenecks or similar problems this year. Last year, on the other hand, we were particularly affected by the floods in Spain and the subsequent shortage of clementines."
Father Udo Brinker continues to focus on the weekly market business, while his son Fabian primarily supplies school canteens, daycare centers, and offices in the surrounding Steinfurt district.
Minimum wage increase jeopardizes catering deliveries
Brinker is more critical of the ubiquitous cost increases, especially the planned minimum wage increase. "This will certainly pose major challenges for us in both purchasing and sales. We mainly supply daycare centers and school canteens, and are therefore in a market segment with quite limited budgets. The minimum wage increase is making it increasingly difficult to offer not only the product itself, but also the storage, picking, and logistics surrounding it at a reasonable price. This will make it considerably more difficult to acquire new customers and achieve further growth in this area."
Fruit for employees as a growing business segment
In addition to school canteens and daycare centers, the delivery of fruit for employees is a second sales channel for the family business, which was founded in 1949. "We supply both large companies, such as municipal utility companies, and medium-sized businesses with around 20–30 employees, such as regional tax consultants. We have found a growing and highly regarded market segment here, which is likely to continue growing in the coming years," predicts Brinker.
© Früchte Brinker Service
Insight into the fruit cold storage facility
Expansion of operating capacities
Despite the challenges already mentioned, the company has already set the course for the future. "At the beginning of the year, the opportunity arose to rent a new hall in the immediate vicinity of the existing company headquarters. This allowed us to increase our premises fivefold in one go so that we now have state-of-the-art cold storage and office space, as well as picking and packaging capacities. Nevertheless, we are planning a renovation and extension of the old location in the coming year to be able to continue to meet the requirements of our customers in the future," he concludes.
For more information:
Fabian Brinker
Früchte-Brinker-Service
Eschenstraße 23
48485 Neuenkirchen
Phone: +49 (0) 59739 087899
[email protected]
www.fruechte-brinker-service.de
