New report warns suppliers and wholesalers face mounting pressure from volatile supply, fierce competition, and more powerful retail buyers
Europe’s fresh fruit and vegetable wholesale sector is likely to develop an increasingly distinct split between large-scale suppliers serving major retailers and smaller specialists targeting particular products, customers or channels, according to new research published by Rabobank.
It said wholesalers faced growing pressure from volatile product availability, intense competition, increasingly powerful buyers and limited growth in downstream demand.
“The fresh fruit and vegetable wholesale sector is not disappearing; it is evolving,” said Cindy van Rijswick, report author and global head of crops at RaboResearch.
The report said larger operators would likely pursue greater scale and efficiency as retailers demanded high volumes and consistent supply, while sourcing becomes more challenging.
Risk management in sourcing and logistics, as well as diversification across markets, was also expected to become increasingly important, it noted.
Alternative growth plan
But Rabobank said consolidation was not the only route forward. Smaller and medium-sized businesses could remain competitive by concentrating on particular products, activities or sales channels and differentiating themselves through service, quality and product knowledge.
The EU wholesale sector remains highly fragmented, it suggested, with almost 45,000 businesses involved in the wholesale trade of fruit, vegetables and potatoes, according to Eurostat figures.
At the same time, the ten largest companies were said to account for an estimated 12 per cent of the market.
Increasing volatility
Van Rijswick said the industry was contending with highly variable upstream availability alongside fierce competition and increasingly large customers.
She also pointed to the growing importance of imports. The number of EU companies importing blueberries from Peru, for example, apparently rose from 30 in 2015 to more than 150 in 2025, according to Peruvian customs data cited in the research.
At the same time, declining EU production and increasing volatility in imports raise important sourcing risks, with climate change, regulation and constraints around water, land, energy and labour among the factors affecting availability.
Rabobank expected the resulting market to leave room both for large consolidated suppliers and agile specialists focused on specific product-market-channel combinations.
