Summer is approaching, and with it, the Belgian hard fruit season is drawing to a close—a season that went reasonably well for Devos Group. "We're farmers, so we always complain, but honestly, we have little to complain about this time. It's been a stable season with fair prices. Of course, we harvested less than in previous years. That's something people often forget, so with decent prices and solid sales, we've had a good season overall," explains Louis De Cleene of the Bekkevoort-based company in Flanders.
"All in all, we're satisfied. Sales continued to perform well across all markets," Louis continues. "Usually, we see things slow down after Berlin, but that didn't happen this year. It's now the end of May, and we still have two months of Conference pears to deliver to customers with standing programmes. We'll manage that without any problems, but our stock is quite limited. In my view, it could have been a little less tight."
"In fact, for the past month, I've been running at only 50 per cent capacity, simply because we don't have enough product. We have enough to meet all our programme commitments, but with a bit more free stock, we could still be doing some very good business. Unfortunately, there is no more available. Based on current stock levels, I could probably earn more on the free market than through the programmes we're still running—but in the end, good relationships are more important than making a bit more money now."
Few opportunities in free trade
Despite this, the trader still sees healthy demand as the weather warms up. "You do notice a bit of a slowdown when temperatures rise and stone fruit enters the market. Then, free trade becomes a bit tougher. We're no longer selling full truckloads at once, but we're still getting calls from new customers looking for help. Ideally, I would have had more volume right now to gain those new clients. If you still have pears and others don't, it opens up opportunities for new business. But at the moment, those opportunities just aren't there."
"It's the opposite of last year," he adds. "That was a situation we hopefully won't face again anytime soon—so much stock left unsold unexpectedly. This year, it's a different story. If you bet on the free market, there was still some money to be made. Last year, you would've lost out. That's how it goes. Even so, pallet box prices in free trade are hardly worth mentioning now. There are still a few traders who need to fill their programmes and are willing to pay top prices if another storage cell becomes available, but those are isolated cases. We're not in that situation. We'll just stick to fulfilling our programmes until the end of the season."
Smaller crop than expected
Looking ahead to the new season, Louis, who will enter the next chapter under the new Devos-Wouters banner following the merger with Wouters Fruit, says the situation has already shifted somewhat in just two weeks. "Two weeks ago, we were all feeling quite positive. People were talking about a full harvest, but the drought and sharp winds have had some impact, I'm afraid. We've experienced quite a heavy fruit drop, so in the end, it looks like we'll be working with similar volumes to this season. Still, we remain optimistic. Things will pick up again soon. We expect to start picking Corina around the first week of August. Plus, we'll begin with the first Belgian cherries in about two to three weeks, so we're looking forward to the months ahead."
For more information:
Louis De Cleene
Devos Group
Eugeen Coolsstraat 66
3460 Bekkevoort - Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)16 77 97 58
[email protected]
www.devosgroup.com