Netherlands: Poor start lettuce season, prices recovering

The persistently cold nights have yielded good quality lettuce, but sales weren’t great. "Business has been poor in terms of pricing in the past two months, but now it’s getting a little better," says producer Bert Doelman.

Normally, lettuce supply from the open field would now be underway, but the cold weather of recent weeks has caused general delays. With the start of warmer weather, both consumption and sales are rising and prices are finally going up. "The lighter products go for 40 cents, the heavier for 60 cents," says Doelman. "In recent months, prices were around 20 cents. That is really low."

After years of decline, the Dutch lettuce acreage has stabilized somewhat. "Belgium, France, Italy and Germany have more than made up for the Dutch decline," says Doelman. “This has really been a European market of late. Competition is fairly substantial on the continent. Last year the cold in Spain caused some problems there, in turn leading to good prices over here, but things are always shifting.”

This year the cold did not reach beyond Germany and the Netherlands, so production was good in France and Spain. Doelman: "There they can also grow good lettuce, so they represent a major competitor. Now it’s getting too hot in those parts, and countries like Germany and the Netherlands start producing. We’ll just have to wait and see how the market will perform.”