The carrot market is very quiet at the moment. “There is more supply than demand. This resulted in price drops the past few weeks. The price of field crops decreased from 18 cent to 10 cent, every week the price dropped a few cents,” says Kees Heegsma from Lemmer. He expects that the market will remain at this price level for now.
“Last year, we had more export around this time of year, but then there was demand from African countries, due to the Sabbath year more carrots were exported to Israel, and the drought in Eastern Europe caused a higher demand and a good mood on the carrot market,” reflects Kees. “We really miss the export demand. Our client countries have more than enough supply themselves, only Belgium and Germany remain on the market.”
“The Dutch supply is slowly getting started and there were several problems in Limburg due to the weather. The early varieties caused a high tare percentage, but the more stable varieties that did not suffer from the extreme weather conditions are coming to the market. The carrots that have been harvested are looking good. Qualitatively, I’m not worried; however, with regard to sales, I have my concerns. The carrot acreage in the early segment south and the polders has been increased, I’m not sure that the market can handle this, however.”
