Wholesale markets hit a pre-December slump this week exacerbated by the warm autumn weather so far.
Record autumn temperatures were seen in key production areas over the last two months, bringing many crops on early and creating an oversupply on both wholesale and retail markets.
At Birmingham’s market, home-grown cauliflower was selling for 480p for 12, down from 780p last year, while they were down 5p to 50p each at Liverpool market.
“We seem to have plenty of gear, but the trade really needs to improve,” one Birmingham wholesaler told FPJ.
Chris Dibble from HE Dibble in Sheffield has retail and catering customers.
“This is normally the worst time of year but I think it is all the worse this year because people are short of money and everything is in oversupply,” he said.
Part of the problem is the unseasonably mild autumn so far, which has meant Dutch and English salad lines have been available much later than usual, with Spain and Morocco coming on stream to overlap for longer than normal.
Dibble said: “The last two weeks we have had way too much cauliflower.
Now we are seeing that start to turn around and we are able to ask for a bit more money. In the next few weeks though it will go disastrously short and we might even be short for Christmas.”
The mood was a little better north of the border, however, where Spanish salads have just come on stream.
Peter Moore of wholesaler James McKenzie & Son, said: “We started this week with Spanish iceberg, cos, oakleaf, pak choi and curly endive. It is a bit quiet this time of year but this has been the best Tuesday trading we have had for a while, probably because we had the new-season Spanish salads.”
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