Prices of Egyptian grapes in Europe have fallen, sources in the industry have told Eurofruit, attributed to large volumes of early European grapes hitting the market, while big volumes of Egyptian fruit remain.
'The prices [of Egyptian grapes] are very low at the moment,' confirmed Michiel van Dijk, account manager at Dutch marketer Hillfresh.
'The reason is that the volume is big, but the supermarkets have already moved on to European grapes,' he noted. 'Due to warm weather earlier in the season, these European grapes are appearing earlier in the marketplace.'
Heike Hagenguth of Egyptian exporter Pico Modern Agriculture agreed, stating that high volumes of stored grapes, coupled with low demand on the European market and early arrivals from Spain, had pushed down prices in Europe.
Meanwhile, another leading importer commented: 'There's always a bit of a turning point in the Egyptian season but it's not out of the ordinary for prices to be low. The Egyptian grape deal is going slowly this season, but it's not nearly as bad as in 2011 and 2012, when its production arrived later and prices collapsed for the majority of the fruit.'
He added: 'This year the downward trend is probably due more to demand than anything else. The discounters particularly in the UK are having an impact, but elsewhere in Europe some retailers have sold a record volume of Indian grapes, so there is sales momentum which has helped the Egyptians at the start of their campaign.'
