The Dutch aubergine season started out as very good in January, but by now, the market has hit a major slump. “We started unusually early as a result of the favourable weather and the amount of sunshine after planting. The first three weeks of the season, up to the first week of February, were exceptionally good. Spain was out of product and had nothing left in stock, which allowed for plenty of space for the first Dutch aubergines. At one point, we even had prices of 4 to 5 euro per kilogram, which was unprecedented,” says Patrick van Schetsen from Purple Pride.
“Since about three weeks ago, however, more product has been arriving from Spain, and the market has collapsed. We went from an extremely good situation to an extremely bad one. It just goes to show how close the two can be to each other,” Patrick continues. “Up till last week, prices were still at a high level in the retail channel, and that stagnated consumption, resulting in decreasing prices. From a kilogram-price of 5 euro, sales prices dropped to between 60 and 70 cent, and auction prices are even lower in Spain.”
“All in all, the start was lousy for the third year in a row, even worse, prices are even lower now than they were in the past two years,” Patrick says. With a harvest of 20 million kilograms of aubergines per year, divided over five cultivation locations, Purple Pride is the largest aubergine supplier in Northwestern Europe. Sales and marketing of Purple Pride aubergines is done by DOOR Partners BV, the sales subsidiary of Coöperatie DOOR UA.
For more information:
DOOR Partners
Honderdland 70
2676 LS Maasdijk, the Netherlands
T: +31 (0)174 28 62 42
p.vanschetsen@doorpartners.nl
www.purplepride.nl