On the field side, May 2019

May 2019 : northern vegetables

Winter spinach production is complete, fair in both quality and quantity. In the fields, the dry and windy weather tends to dry out the spring spinach leaves. Irrigation is helping to remedy this problem but not all farmers can irrigate.
Carrot planting is now complete, however, emergence is tentative at this time as we await rain.
Pea planting is wrapping up this week while green bean planting is starting.

In general, a little rain would allow us to start this new campaign more serenely.

Southern vegetables

For the southern vegetables (bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, …) everything is going well. Broccoli production is ending while tomato production has just started.

Garlic

Given the drop in prices compared to N-1, the Chinese are speculating a lot on the prices of the remaining stocks from the previous season. Prices are high, around +15%. The new season starts mid-June, prices should stabilize.

Onions

The long-awaited start of the new onion harvest (Poland & Spain) will take place in mid-July. Currently, the available volumes are low. Most of the production will take place in August, which will ease the market.

Wild asparagus

Harvested in Alsace, in the woods, or under the bushes, then frozen and packaged in our factory in Saint-Viance, wild asparagus is widely appreciated on the export market. An exceptional product, a large part of our production is intended for export.

Forest mushrooms

As mentioned in our previous newsletter, small wild morels (Turkey origin, size 1-3) are rather rare this year. Nevertheless, the campaign went well.
The price of cultivated morels from China has decreased this year, producers have broken the price to empty their N-1 stock.
For the third year in a row, the volume of morel available is low (3 times lower than a reference year). This is explained by the dry weather (in Bulgaria in particular), humidity is an essential factor for the development of mushrooms.

Gelpass, May 2019