There's been an increase in demand for Portuguese kiwis after March, says Nelio Marques, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Portuguese fresh produce exporter Kiwicoop: "Throughout our 35 years of existence, we've specialized in Kiwi conservation. With this acquired knowledge, it was possible to manage the quantity of Green Kiwi sold, in order to have a significant amount of fruit to be sold between April and June. As we expected, there was an increase in demand after March, and thus it was possible to provide our regular customers and some new customers with high quality fruit, even in this final phase of the campaign."
According to Marques, Kiwicoop has been able to enter new markets this season, as fruit availability was limited. "We are currently calibrating and delivering at a good pace. These are historically the busiest months at Kiwicoop and this year is no exception. This year in particular, due to the smaller amount of fruit available in the Northern Hemisphere, it was possible for us to enter non-traditional markets for Kiwicoop, for which we reserved a small percentage of our production. We are thus growing in markets in northern Europe. In our more traditional markets, such as Portugal, Spain and France, we felt greater market pressure from potential new customers, as many of the other players were limited in the fruit available at this time of year. We were unable to meet all requests in our usual markets as we prioritized our long-term customers."
Although Kiwicoop could have sold their kiwis faster, Marques states it was a conscious choice to save some volumes for later in the season: "Compared to the past, we are having roughly the same amount of sales between April and May. This is due to our management of the fruit to meet our commitments. Otherwise, we would certainly have exported even more volumes, but we would also have to end the kiwi campaign sooner. The strong demand in recent months has allowed some increase in the sales price, which traditionally also happens in other years at the end of the campaign."
"Our expectations for the remainder of the season are good. We continue to have very good fruit, with good hardness for the season we are in. We hope to continue our season until the end of June. And we are already looking forward to the fruits we work with in the summer, where we highlight babykiwi (arguta), passion fruit and lemons, all produced in the central region of Portugal. Then in September and October, the Red and Yellow kiwis and in November we'll work with the Green Kiwi again," Marques concludes.
For more information:
Nélio Marques
Kiwicoop
Email: [email protected]
https://www.kiwicoop.com/