The summer weeks traditionally bring a somewhat quieter period in the greenhouse vegetable market. "We are certainly not finished with the season yet, but it is relatively calm in the export markets where we are active. Especially in Germany, people are on holiday at the moment, and the quietest two weeks of the summer are still to come. Nevertheless, there is still some potential, but I expect things will not pick up until the second week of September," says FMB's Jonathan Vandesande.
This means demand is somewhat stagnant at the moment. "Still, everything is going well. The market is not at a standstill," continues the trader from the Belgian exporter, part of the Calsa Group. "It is all fairly manageable. We have, of course, started with Belgian pears, which bring some life, but greenhouse vegetables are still finding their way, too. There are no major shortages either. What we can see is that last week's heat has caused some blossom-end rot. That has led to fewer Intense, Coeur de Boeuf, and San Marzano tomatoes. In addition, the quality of peppers always suffers a little as well. That is always inconvenient, but manageable."
The current calmness does not mean a collapse in prices, Jonathan assures. "I think that for tomatoes, for example, prices are even slightly higher on average than a few weeks ago. Especially for products where there is less availability, such as San Marzano and Coeur de Boeuf. There are no problems selling them. In that respect, I think spring was a lot more difficult for many products in terms of sales, because we had good weather fairly early on. That led to large productions. If you then see how prices for cherry tomatoes are now remaining relatively high and stable, whereas in spring they plummeted due to oversupply. What was too much then is now a bit less, so everything is balancing out well. It is just a matter of waiting until we hopefully see more activity again in September."
For more information:
Jonathan Vandesande
Frans Michiels & Zn (FMB)
Kempenarestraat 50A - Bus 3
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium
Tel: +32 15 560600
[email protected]
www.fmb.be