The warm and dry summer of 2018 was given a spot in the records. The effects of this period can even be seen in the supply of winter vegetables. Commercial enterprise Freeland anticipated the shortages that could occur in Europe. The company anticipated this by going to more southern countries to have plenty of red cabbage, parsnip, parsley roots, celeriac and onions available. The warm summer has a positive effect on prices for leek on the market.
During the winter vegetable season it should become clear just how high shortages will be, but the company in Emmen, the Netherlands, expects 500 tonnes of red cabbage, 500 tonnes of parsnip and parsley root and 500 tonnes of celeriac, in any case. “This will allow us to fill programmes until May, and we think we’ll have enough product to absorb the gaps in the Dutch season,” says Kees van den Bosch. “Thanks to the dry summer, we expect to have additional work until May or June.”
Challenging year
Freeland started looking for new growers for winter vegetables among the relationships the company already had in various southern countries. They sorted for the consequences of the warm and dry summer to that end. Freeland expects a regular supply of winter vegetables from Africa and Asia as of January. “Because we’re expecting shortages during the European season, we’ve contacted growers around the globe because we want to have product for our customers year-round,” Kees explains. “Availability is challenging this year.”
“This is the third year we’ll be importing pumpkins,” Kees continues. The pumpkin harvest in the Netherlands and Germany was smaller in 2018, so there’s more interest in import pumpkins. “That’s what we’re anticipating. From mid-January we’ll have orange Hokkaido pumpkins available.”
Lettuce and onion shortages
The summer months were also busy, Kees reminisces. That was mostly due to shortages on the lettuce market. “It was a good summer for business, but not for the environment and the world,” he says. “Consumers don’t realise where products have to be bought because of the dry weather. If they were to hear the story behind their food, they might be more aware of it.”
For years, Freeland has had relationships with growers in Egypt for onions. These relationships are useful now that the Dutch season is this uncertain. “We’ve brought the season for Egyptian onions forward by sowing earlier, to absorb the shortage of Dutch onions.” He mostly expects shortages in organic yellow and red onions this season.
Recovery leek market?
The warm summer has so far been positive for leek. The market for this vegetable has been in a slump for years due to the large supply, but this has so far been different this season. “In recent years we actually always had too much leek, so we’re hoping for shortages this year, so that prices can become a bit higher. Growers could earn some more money then,” Kees explains. “In the final weeks of 2018, the leek market showed a recovery. A lot of Polish workers had already gone home for the holidays, so that prices three times higher than in 2017 were recorded.”
The company exports the winter vegetables to various markets throughout Europe. It once started with Sweden as a base. In recent years, export to Poland has grown along with the economic growth in this country, but the UK, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia, and in the summer months Spain and Italy are also on the list of export countries. “We export throughout Europe, with an emphasis on Scandinavia,” Kees sums up.
In supermarkets, fresh versions of winter vegetables are slowly being pushed aside by convenience versions. Because of the summer, this market has become more dynamic. “We supply to companies that process these products,” Kees says. One example is the industry processing onions. “A lot of onions are processed industrially, but these companies all want large sizes.” Due to the dry weather, onion sizes are small this year, and contract suppliers for these processing companies can’t supply the onions. Industry is looking for batches of large onions from necessity. “New companies can suddenly be seen arriving on the market, and these process all onions mechanically. They normally have agreements with their own farmers, but those can’t supply now. We are happy to be their lifesaver.”
