European market, November 2008 : Indicators. Banana, avocado, orange, grapefruit, easy peelers, litchi, mango, pineapple, sea freight

Litchi: The Indian Ocean litchi export season got off to a real start in November after the arrival of a few batches from Mauritius at the end of October. Madagascar developed shipments by air, followed immediately by South Africa and Réunion. The substantial supplies from these various origins came up against limited demand on the European markets and this resulted in a strong decrease in price throughout the month. The early sales season and market morosity with regard to tropical produce resulted in the opposite trend to that of the later 2007 season. Mango: The bulk of European mango supply in November was from Brazil. The gradual ending of produce from Spain and Senegal enhanced this dominant position. Running later than the original forecasts, deliveries from Brazil soon came up against dull demand that resulted in a weakening of prices that most affected 'Tommy Atkins', the main variety. The prices of 'Kent' and 'Keitt' from Brazil also fell gradually. Pineapple: Supply of 'Sweet' from Latin America continued to decrease in November and the quality problems observed in October remained, mainly as a result of bad weather. Supply of 'Smooth Cayenne' began to increase but the quality of the batches received was fairly uneven. All these quality problems made it impossible to truly re-launch demand. The air market situation worsened throughout the month for fruits from most sources. Indeed, demand was not sufficient for the volumes released, and fruit quality was also irregular. Finally, supply was varied and increased strongly on the 'Victoria' pineapple market. Fruit quality seemed better but once again the demand was not there. Sea freight: With so much 12-month Period business fixed ever earlier in the calendar year and Ecuador banana and Morocco citrus charters accounting for almost all the Spot business concluded there is ever less to consider in the November retrospective. (Résumé d'auteur