HillFresh International is offering South African and Namibian grapes for the third week. "A very large harvest was initially expected. This was later brought down a little, but we still have good volumes of grapes," says buyer Michiel van Dijk. "The price level is good and the sales are good."
"Last year the prices were too high and luckily this isn't the case now. The stocks aren't going to be big due to this. Especially the white grapes are going quickly, there are still some red grapes from Peru and Brazil on the market," continues Michiel. "Grapes are an especially interesting product for retailers towards the holidays. Luckily the volumes sent are acceptable, but we're expecting a considerable amount of grapes, so the market price will undoubtedly sink further over the next few weeks. How far remains to be seen."
"At the moment we ware receiving the varieties Early Sweet, Prime, Flame and Star Light. The harvest is good quality. The weather conditions were good and this resulting in a very good product," says Michiel. Although South Africa is sending more and more grapes to different continents, the EU continues to be an unabated large buyer. "We may notice it more in the later varieties."
The main HillFresh buyers are the European retail customers, for whom the company carries a year round grape programme. The mix packagings are also popular at the moment, according to Michiel. "Producers want to ship as much as possible at the moment and are not eager to send mixed packaging, as this takes more time to package. This makes the demand for mixed packaging very large."
