It took a long time, but last week the cucumber price really did improve in earnest. Not cucumber, but pepper is now the problem child in greenhouse vegetable country. Here, the price dipped further last week, while tomato prices are also low.
The average unit price for cucumber at the VBT more than doubled in 1 week to 56.7 euro cents a piece. A price that is also suddenly well above the five-year average. The difficult market situation since April cannot immediately make up for this upturn, but normally, after June, pricing in cucumber country gets a bit better. If so, this could be the beginning.
The pepper price has been on a steep decline for the past three weeks. That fall resulted in an average price of just under 58 euro cents per kilo at the end of week 27. Prices for red (52.2 euro cents) and yellow (37.9 euro cents) are below that average price. Orange is again the best-paid color, with an average price of over 1.38 euro cents per kilo.
In a stormy summer's week, strawberry prices found their way up again. Like last year, the price peaked in week 27. The average price came out at 4.80 euros per kilo.
All figures can be checked at www.vlaanderen.be/landbouwcijfers.