Van Ooijen Groenten en Fruit remains one of the specialist auction buyers who purchase daily from the BelOrta, REO, and Hoogstraten auctions for customers in the Dutch market. "We do our very best to serve people with Belgian products, and fortunately, people know how to find us for that," says Robert van Ooijen.
"And with auction sales, the nice thing is that when the fixed contracts run out, the auction often starts performing well," Van Ooijen continues. Nevertheless, the market is still quiet at the moment. "August was already not great, and even now the market is quiet. It's a bit of patching things up. All in all, a very different year compared to last year."
"Strawberries are plentiful. On Tuesday, Elsanta was selling on the auction between €2.25 and €2.50, with the smaller grades a bit below that. Raspberries were selling for €1.50. Redcurrants went for €3.00 (per 500 grams) and Belgian blueberries were around €1.70–1.75."
"The fruit and vegetable market is not very lively either. For example, pepper prices are still not impressive. Bell peppers in red, yellow, and green were around €0.80, €1.25, and €1.20, with the larger sizes (80/90) still a bit more expensive than the smaller ones (70). All in all, not very bad, but certainly not booming either. The only thing expensive is aubergines. Those suddenly went to €1.80–1.85. Don't ask me why, but we were not used to such a price jump."
"Courgettes are around €0.20–0.22, which is not excessive either, though they have been cheaper before. Vine tomatoes are just below €1.00. Regular tomatoes (BB) are around €0.90, and layered tomatoes (7 kg) went for around €0.80 on the auction. In August, you sometimes see the price drop to €0.30, but we haven't had that this summer. Instead, the price has hovered around €0.70–0.80 in recent weeks with the occasional spike up or down."
"Head lettuce is also not worth much. It seems like people are eating less and less head lettuce. On top of that, you are very dependent on foreign supply. If there's plenty available, prices in Belgium don't go up either. On Monday, Bionda prices rose a bit because there was less on the auction, but I expect it to drop again soon."
For more information:
Robert van Ooijen
Groenten en fruit import van Ooijen B.V.
Linnenstraat 3
2988 XL Ridderkerk
Auction: +3215565531
Mobile: +31651545998
[email protected]
www.vanooijenbv.nl
