"Netherlands: "Quality of first batch peppers disappointing, others decent"

Every year I rejoice at the arrival of Dutch produce on the market. To me, nothing quite says ‘spring’ like the advent of the first green peppers. This season however, the first batch of green peppers was a huge disappointment. The items were completely shrivelled and stayed in storage for far too long. Subsequent arrivals were of much better quality, though marred by some wear and tear. The green peppers mostly came in so-called ‘traffic light’ packages: combined with red and yellow fruits from Israel. Due to the high density of green peppers (making them relatively small in size) and the grouping with bulky yellow and red peppers, some problems arose with the size sorting. This was considerably more varied then the designation indicated.

Cucumbers differed per batch. Some batches were dark in color with a reasonable quality, others were much lighter but had excellent quality. Apparently this was due to the difference between exposed and unexposed cultivation. Tomatoes were of reasonable quality. I saw a big batch of vine tomatoes with a superiority comparable to the Spanish ones. I also came across some very decent courgettes and aubergines from Spanish soil. And to end with some Dutch produce: there was a big batch of packaged sprouts with a slight haze on the head but otherwise of good quality.

Source: Peter Damen, KCB