Slow start Israeli lychee, date sales robust
Published: 2013-07-12
Core Tip: With main volumes of lychee from Israel to hit Europe in a couple of weeks, early shipments of the fruit have not done as well as expected.
With main volumes of lychee from Israel to hit Europe in a couple of weeks, early shipments of the fruit have not done as well as expected. “We've shipped some lychee by air so far,” said Tomer Ezra, Mehadrin's managing director. “So we're selling quantities of fruit already, but not as much as we had expected.” The idea of exporting early volumes by air is to take advantage of early season prices before large volumes of the fruit drive those prices down. Because air transport is more expensive than sea shipments, prices tend to be higher anyway. But this year, there haven't been as many takers as in previous years.
Vietnam's supplies tend to go down about this time of year, and with customers preferring Israel's higher quality product, Ezra expects volumes and sales in Europe to pick up soon. “In about one or two weeks, when the sea shipments start arriving in Europe, that's when the lychee season will open up for us,” explained Ezra. However the Lychee is a niche market, in this way or another, we aren’t speaking about high volumes.
Dates
Sales of dates, on the other hand, have been robust. “Ramadan has started, so we've really seen a surge in demand, as was expected,” said Ezra. “So far, the market looks good for Medjool dates, and we expect to finish the season with more sales than in other years.” Barhi dates, which are harvested later in the month, are expected to hit European markets early next month.
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