Scarcity has had an impact on the entire chain

Of course, the fact we are dealing with scarcity is no longer news. The newspapers and online magazines are full of it. Headlines like ‘Every day is another challenge for vegetable processing companies’ and ‘If you are the only one who cannot deliver, you know you have done something wrong, but now everyone is at their wit's end’ are almost a daily feature.

And yet there is something we would like to add to these news flashes. This is the fact that scarcity has had an impact on literally everyone in the chain. This is not always made clear.

A booming business or red numbers?
It is abundantly clear that consumers, retailers, processing companies and importers are struggling with scarcity. It is an almost unique situation throughout Southern Europe, where both cold and bad weather has been experienced, with snow in places you would not necessarily expect it. This has quickly translated into the problems currently being experienced by the final links in the chain. But what is actually happening at the very beginning of that chain? 

As the prices for vegetables available are soaring, it almost seems as if the growers are seizing the opportunity to grow their businesses. But is that actually true?

The prices did not go up because demand has increased, but because the supply has decreased. So is anyone actually making any money?

Virus and cold
Many of the South European and Moroccan growers have had a tough time this season. They had already suffered tremendously from losses due to viruses. Then the cold weather was added into the equation as the final blow. The failure rate was therefore much higher than expected.

For example; when a grower harvests 10 tons of broccoli per hectare, he would normally expect a standard failure percentage of 5%. Under the current conditions, this can easily go up as high as 15%. After all, harvesting with snow on the ground does not provide good results.

The higher price paid for the vegetables that can be effectively harvested will often not cover the costs of the damage the company has suffered due to the high failure rate.

The scarcity, therefore, affects absolutely everyone and we have to do our utmost to make the best of a bad situation together.

Further consequences
The current situation can certainly have long-term consequences. The current forecasts tell us we will have to suffer another two months of calculating and counting to make sure we can fulfil our agreements as efficiently as possible. Of course, we are also focussing on making sure everyone in the chain can get through this situation. From the grower straight through to the consumer.

Our policy of sourcing from different countries is definitely paying off under these circumstances. But these sources are not unlimited either. So far we have been able to supply virtually everything in line with the agreements entered into. We are naturally doing our utmost to ensure this is done as simply as possible for our customers.

More information?
We can imagine you may have questions regarding the situation surrounding your orders and deliveries. Would you like to receive regular updates, or are you in need of a short term prediction? Then please don’t hesitate to contact Jeroen van den Ende. He synchronises the situation with our suppliers in Spain, Morocco, France and the Netherlands daily.