“There’s still much Spanish supply on the market, and retail is still completely in Spanish programmes. We now have to wait until supermarkets switch to Dutch product. I personally already have one customer who has switched, but most still have to make that switch,” René says. According to the cultivator, the cucumber area is stable to slightly rising this year. “There is slightly more high-wire-cultivation. We also switched to high-wire with one greenhouse, and that will result in a slightly larger supply in total.”
The production of Dutch cucumbers was slow to start at the beginning of the season, resulting in good prices. By now, the good weather of the past few days resulted in supply becoming much larger. “Because of this, prices are somewhat under pressure. Yesterday, small cucumbers already dropped to 25 cents, and today the rest followed,” says René Welles, who cultivates cucumbers in Grubbenvorst and Horst, and who takes care of his own sales.
“I feel positive about the Dutch season. Fortunately, we have fairly permanent sales, and because of that, we are not quite dependent on day and week trading. In cucumbers it is always all or nothing. When everyone is in production, sales are mostly difficult, and when switching cultivations, pricing will be a bit more free. We just have to make sure we supply a good product.”
