“It's been a very tough season with grapefruit,” said Oron Ziv of Befresh Europe. “In all of my experience, I haven't seen a year like this.” He pointed to large quantities of fruit coming from Turkey, Spain and Israel as one of the reasons for the low prices. Steadily decreasing demand for grapefruit throughout Europe has also played a part, but Ziv was careful to mention that the poor season is not due to any one factor, and that it's a result of the interplay between many things.
“In Turkey, they can grow with less money, so they can drop their prices,” said Ziv. “That's really affecting Israeli exporters in Russia, which used to be a big market for us, where they're increasingly buying from Turkey.” Israeli citrus exporters also have to figure out how to deal with the expected increase in supplies of Orri clementines. While the dramatic production increases that have been predicted have not yet panned out, it's not clear how European buyers will react to a large increase of Orri clementines.
“We expected to have about 80,000 or 90,000 tons of Orri clementines by this year, but production has been similar to last year's, at about 50,000 tons,” said Ziv. “But, if production gets up to 100,000 or 120,000 tons within the next five years, the question becomes whether the market will still pay high prices for Orris.”
With respect to potatoes, exporters are hoping last year's prices will carry over into this year's fresh season. While shippers wait for supplies from cold storage to leave the market, they're trying to figure out how to proceed this year.
“Last season was crazy for potatoes, regarding prices,” said Ziv. “There's already some demand in Italy for larger sizes, but the main demand in Europe will happen in the next few weeks, so it's difficult to predict how the market will behave.” With no production setbacks or adverse weather during the growing season, there's a good crop in the pipeline.
Carrot prices have been lower than in previous years, though, noted Ziv. Because most Israeli carrot exporters focus on the Russian market, decreased demand for their product there, has not been good for them. While Russian buyers prefer larger sizes, Israeli product is mostly in the medium range, so, while still early, the carrot season has not been kind to exporters.
“Prices for carrots are not attractive right now,” said Ziv. “So many producers are trying to lower the risk of having a bad year by not relying on just one market, so they want to develop business in Belgium, Germany or France, where they can sell their medium-sized product.”
