The first week of the new year shows no trend break on the carrot market. Growers are aiming high and flushers are not very willing to go along with it. The storage life of carrots is a point of attention. Some people are quite wrong about that.
Not all carrots that were brought indoors last fall are doing well. This was already somewhat anticipated and now appears to have come true. It is not yet a matter of large volumes that need to be removed, but several rinsers do report that some dirt needs to be removed. It happens that a batch that contained some firecrackers two or three weeks ago during the test washing of a few boxes, is now about to run out of the boxes. The demand for rinsed carrots for export is still somewhat disappointing. In the weeks before Christmas we priced ourselves out of the market and now it is difficult to get those customers back. Moderate demand and somewhat compelling supply do not improve the purchasing desire among flushers.
Growers have a very different view of the carrot market. According to some insiders, the wet autumn has caused a lot of carrot loss in the Benelux. Add to this the carrots that will be lost in the coming weeks due to quality problems and the price will have to rise towards spring, growers reason. Flushers are less sure about this and hold off. If we, as a Dutch sector, manage to keep the quality problems under control and the trend comes to an end in the coming weeks, then the price could increase significantly. If sales continue to struggle, as is more or less the case now, and more problem parties enter the market, then things will look much less rosy.
The DCA quotation for carrots has taken a step up. Both b- and c-peen this week amount to €22 to €27 per 100 kilos. It is the better parties that are paid a little more for. Growers charge a lot more for really good carrots, but rinsers are not yet starting to do that. They will come later, that is the reasoning.