The courgette plants in the greenhouse are ready, the growers are ready, and the consumers and restaurants hopefully too, because there are plenty of yellow and green courgettes available due to the nice summery weather. Dutch grower Johan Zwinkels, who is looking at his plentiful crops with plentiful flowers: "We have put everything aside and focus on cutting courgettes".
The story of the difficult market situation for courgettes and yellow courgettes, is generally known by now. "Last week, there was a small, and for me inexplicable, surge in the sales of yellow courgettes, but that didn't last long, and prices are low again."
Johan does not want to focus too much on it. He'd rather focus on the small-scale reopening of bars and restaurants and the rest of the season.
#Gertjanskeuze Sterk uit de startblokken. Onze telers zijn er klaar voor, net als wij. Kom mee naar één van onze favoriete telers: @JohanZwinkels is courgette teler in het Westland en is gespecialiseerd in fleur de courgette, oftewel de courgettebloemen. https://t.co/ylsPH7bGfT pic.twitter.com/j5CNMrKmJL
— Rungis (@Rungis_bv) May 15, 2020
Local greens
The green courgettes did very well for a couple of weeks during the start of the corona crisis. More than yellow courgettes and fleur de courgette, it is a retail product. "Problems with transport from Spain caused a reduced supply, and this increased prices for a while, but that has stabilized now and prices are at cost price level."
Johan believes it is a shame that the shelves are not filled everywhere with Dutch product. "The action of dumping potatoes in front of the supermarket's office some time ago was good. It causes awareness about the strangeness of having a lot of import product on the shelves while it is readily available here. Beautiful fresh green local product."
Choose Dutch
However, it is a known story for Johan and his fellow growers, who are seeing the Spanish season going on longer and longer over the last years. "Only during the summer, they nowadays stop for a bit."
Johan cannot change this by himself, but he can grow courgettes, although he is now doing this with a fellow grower. "That is a great partner to work with. Together, we make the best of it, also in the market stall, where it is good to see that local people are expressly trying to choose for Dutch products. The problem of import while everything is available here, does not only apply to courgettes."
For more information:
CourgetteFleur Zwinkels
Johan Zwinkels
+31(0)6-51988291
+31(0)174-244779
[email protected]
www.courgettefleur.nl
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