Belgian auction association LAVA has announced that it expects a peak in pepper production in August, as well as 'plentiful' supplies up until October.
Production of red and orange peppers is currently on the rise in Belgium, according to LAVA's Benny Cuypers, while production of other colours has levelled off.
'The area under green and yellow bell peppers for the LAVA auctions has stabilised,' he said. 'The area under orange peppers has increased slightly, but is still limited, while the area under red peppers has indeed expanded.”
At Veiling Hoogstraten, orange peppers are beginning to catch up. “We are seeing the total area under peppers growing by about 20 per cent in 2011,' says the auction's Jan Engelen. 'Our Dutch growers are even doubling the area under orange peppers. They all satisfy the Flandria specifications.”
In the coming weeks, LAVA's supplies are expected to peak at 200-300 tonnes of green peppers and 400-600 tonnes of red peppers per week, while yellow peppers will peak in weeks 31-35 with a volume of 180-300 tonnes a week.
