After months of record price after record price, July 2022 did not manage to deliver a record price on the European tomato market. The average tomato price was just short of that of July 2021, the summer of "winter prices," due to cultivation problems and consequently lower volumes.
Normally in July, the price on the tomato market in many countries rises again after a dip in May and June. This year is different, with prices dropping further everywhere.
The price level in three of the four large tomato-producing countries is still above average. Only in France did the price fall just below the five-year average in July, while in Spain and the Netherlands, it crept closer to the five-year average.
In July, tomato prices continued their downward trend in three of the four countries. Only in Italy, the increase in the average starts again in August. Spain deviated the most from the five-year average with a 6% decrease in July, when normally an increase of 25% compared to June is recorded.
The Netherlands (-7 to +13%) also deviates considerably from the five-year average. The Netherlands also recorded by far the lowest average price per kilo of the four countries, while Spain also remained below the average European price level in July.
The graphs above come from the page with agricultural figures by the Flemish Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Belgium does not appear on the European Commission's dashboard. Figures from the Federation of Belgian Horticultural Cooperatives (VBT) show that in the last week of July, week 30, the price here plunged below the five-year average for both loose and vine tomatoes. This was also the case in week 26, which also included 1 July.
The volumes supplied to the VBT auctions are considerably higher than in 2021, at least for vine tomatoes in the whole month of July. In week 30, the volume supplied in 2022 is almost 40% higher than in 2021. The 2022 volume is also 1.5% higher than in 2020.
