The Dutch bell pepper market is currently progressing with difficulty. "Prices for the yellow and green ones have now picked up a little. But those of, particularly, the red and orange varieties are way down," observes sales manager Wouter Willems. He is a sales manager at the ZON Cooperative.
Auction buyers at ZON
He blames mainly a lack of demand for the difficult market situation. "There are plenty of bell peppers. They've grown nicely. The supermarkets are also doing everything they can. They have all these campaigns planned to sell their bell peppers. But, there's simply no demand."
"It's a little hard to understand the present market. Yellow and green bell peppers are currently selling for more than €1. But, this week, the red and orange ones went for €0.60/€0.70 and €0.50/€0.60, respectively. That's way too low, especially for the time of year," Wouter says.
"What's ironic is that their quality is excellent at the moment. During the summer, we had a few lesser quality weeks. However, those are, fortunately, behind us. The quality is great now." What could revive the market? "To turn the tide, productions would have to start failing. Or people would have to start buying Dutch bell peppers en masse."
"The first Spanish bell peppers have now arrived too. Albeit, not in huge quantities yet. But these are earlier than last year. Hopefully, the supermarkets will continue to buy Dutch produce for the time being. Our growers can still supply us until the second week of November. The quality is good, and the volumes are available. So nothing's hindering Dutch bell peppers sales," Wouter concludes.
For more information:
Wouter Willems
ZON
104 Venrayseweg
5928 RH, Venlo, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 773 239 999
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.zon-business.com