It took an entire season, but vine tomato prices are not bad at all at the moment. They even significantly surpass prices of loose tomatoes at the moment, says Dirk van Nieuwkerk of Anaco Greeve. There is not a lot of Spanish produce yet.
The lower supply causes prices to reach very decent levels. "The past 5 years, we haven't had a great autumn. This autumn started off especially bad, and nobody had expected this upturn." Remarkably, vine tomato prices are currently a lot higher than those of loose tomatoes. "Twice as good. That is rather unusual", Van Nieuwkerk also thinks. Over the entire season, loose tomatoes are performing a lot better. "They've had a small dip, but are also picking up again over the past weeks."
One cause for the difference between vine and loose, could be that with vine tomatoes, a lot is being switched to illuminated cultivation, resulting in lower supplies. "That amounts to a few hundred hectares", Van Nieuwkerk confirms. More important, according to him, is the lesson that can be learnt from this. "For horticulture and banks, it adds up nicely in any case. Things are going well like this, so for the future they should look at how much is being produced now. You can really achieve something in a situation like this."