"A hard-fought battle." That is how Giel Hermans describes the sweetcorn market in September. This Dutch farmer processed his last corn of the season last week. He is now switching to the new Spanish harvest.
First Spanish corn
"It was generally a tough season. Spring was cold and wet. On top of that, it flooded in this region. We lost 15 hectares of the last planting," Giel says. "Despite that, we didn't start harvesting much later than previous years. That was our saving grace. We were very early. The rest of the Netherlands was super late. That resulted in a good July and August."
September was another story, though. "Everything sown for a month was ripe in ten days. No longer having real summer weather didn't help sales either. In September, that caused an oversupply with disastrously low prices. Fortunately, we could deliver surpluses to the frozen food industry. We also experimented a little with cooked corn. But you don't want such situations every year."
"The Dutch season usually runs until October 15th. But when it flooded here, I immediately contacted our Spanish growers. I asked them to start planting earlier which they did. That means we can now start with Spanish sweet corn about ten days earlier. That corn looks great. It's not spring volumes, but we can meet our customers' fall demand nicely," Giel continues.
And the Spanish season usually runs to early December. "We then switch to Senegal. I'm going to look into Middle Eastern crops. They grow quite a bit of sweet corn there as well. And I'm curious to see whether we can add it to our package. Senegal is a good supplier. But it's always nice to have a few more countries of origins at hand."
There are developments in the sales regions too. For example, according to Giel, sales in Belgium have increased considerably in recent years. "Those sales still lag a few years behind the Netherlands. Nonetheless, Belgians are increasingly discovering this product. "They currently prefer locally-grown corn. But we're not far from the Belgian border, so we can easily arrange that. Entering the Belgian market offers good opportunities."
Con Storm recently joined the Hermans Suikermais sales team. He was at Frankort&Koning for many years. He will now source and sell sweetcorn. "Con has a lot of experience, especially with overseas imports. So we're delighted that he's strengthening the team," Giel concludes.
For more information:
Giel Hermans
Hermans Suikermais
1a Donk
5995 PL, Kessel, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 654 757 764
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mielies.nl