“The Spanish stone fruit season this year is characterised by a very low supply. Due to the bad weather in Spain, there was not much stone fruit available until 10 days ago. There is clearly less fruit on the market than in previous years,” says Henk Vlaeminck of Van Dijk Foods Belgium. There were sufficient apricots until two weeks ago, but there have been shortages since last week. Yellow nectarines and good varieties of plums are also not enough to meet demand. ” To this day, the demand for stone fruit at Van Dijk Foods Belgium is very high. “The good weather we have had recently and the virus may have contributed to the good sales. Due to the shortages on the market and the high demand, prices are at a high level,” says Vlaeminck. “We are very satisfied with the quality of the stone fruit, but we speak for ourselves. We receive a lot of fruit from Royal and these men are in the south of Spain, so they have been less affected by the bad weather. ” “We started selling stone fruit a little earlier this year in the last week of March. The first fruit we sell comes from covered cultivation, so we've been busy for a while, ”says Henk. “This year it is difficult to see how the stone fruit consumption is developing. Because of the virus, no one can go on holiday, so everyone is at home. This has increased the consumption of fruit in general.” It is not only nectarines and peaches that are suffering from shortages, Spanish cherries are not as abundant this year either. “It is super difficult to find good quality cherries this year. This is also due to the bad weather they have had. Lemons are also difficult products these months. Lemons are real catering products and sales are virtually non-existent. We hope that when the catering industry opens, sales will get going again,” Henk concludes. Source - https://www.freshplaza.com