The French carrot season is running a week behind last year, leaving customers eagerly awaiting supplies on a tight market.
Simon Lane, managing director of importer Fruco, reports that supplier Pot au Pin in south-west France has increased acreage slightly this year, but that harvesting is delayed due to weather conditions.
He said: “We don’t anticipate liftings will start before May 21-22. Yields will remain quite low until we get into larger volume liftings in the first week of June. Weather conditions have not been favourable, up until about 10 days ago.”
Winter storms removed some of the plastic from the French crops, which has delayed the season’s start. This has been compounded by unseasonably cold temperatures.
Lane said: “All of this has happened in a year when there has been considerable demand for imported carrots as the UK crop is coming to a rapid end. Supplies are short so that when French carrots start, they will be coming onto a receptive market. However, they won’t have that long to sell as UK conditions at this stage are such that English carrots are likely to start on time.”
Therefore, the likely scenario over the next month is that France will only be able to fulfil about 50 per cent of UK demand for carrots in its first week of the season, before enjoying just two weeks of heavy supply ahead of UK crops coming on stream around June 18-20.
Shortages on the UK market in recent weeks mean that product has been arriving from China, Australia, Spain, Portugal and Israel.
Retail prices for French carrots this season are likely to run high given increased transport costs, as well as the effect of the euro-sterling exchange rate. Lane said: “This year, the exchange rate situation adds several pence a kilo to the price, without even considering transport costs that are 20 per cent higher than a year ago. French growers are unlikely to feel under any pressure to keep prices low as they have demand from many different markets.”
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