I have been living and working in Brazil for almost four years now, and I am starting to appreciate local products more and more, so the craving for Dutch products is slowly diminishing. We still have the typical Dutch spreads on our breakfast table, such as Calvé peanut butter, chocolate sprinkles, and apple spread, but in general, these are becoming less important.
I don’t follow the Dutch news that often anymore. However, last week, my attention was drawn to the news that the first herring of the season were on sale. We will be visiting the Netherlands soon, and herring is a product that you really miss in Brazil. There is some really nice fish available here, but nothing like herring with raw onions.
Some of our growers are in the Netherlands this week. The FlowerTrials are well known here and considered important. Contact with the breeders is valuable throughout the year but these open days in June offer the growers the opportunity to see the latest range of potted and bedding plants and to gain extensive inspiration and new contacts. Concepts are becoming more important in Brazil and growers are on the look-out for added value to distinguish themselves in a positive way.
The store sales of plants and flowers for ‘Lover’s Day’ have been disappointing. Lover’s Day was on a Sunday this year, and it might have been too cold for the Brazilians; most of them remained indoors. Brazilians particularly like to go out for dinner and shopping on Sundays, and at the moment, there is less money to spend due to the economic crisis. Anyway, the results in the stores were disappointing; the demand was less than normal and because of the weather, supply was also less.
After we had a few weeks of rain, it suddenly became very cold by Brazilian standards. Here in Holambra, it has been 3 degrees Celsius in the mornings this week. With plastic greenhouses that are often open at the side, or only have a shade cover, it is obvious that production will be significantly delayed. The next promotional sales will be about spring, which starts in August. We will move the promotional sales forward to bring the increased supply to the attention of the customers.
The annual technical trades fair Hortitec will take place in Holambra from 22 to 24 June 2016. This event attracts a lot of international companies and representatives to Holambra and is, once again, fully booked. Energy saving and new technologies are important themes, as well as the trend that more and more products are being grown in greenhouses; examples include young plants for forestry, like eucalyptus, and young coffee plants.
Hortitec expects once again to welcome more visitors than last year. This shows that great trades fairs like FlowerTrials and Hortitec have a lot of pull and attract visitors.
I will be travelling to the Netherlands again soon to visit a couple of companies and, of course, my family. I will make sure to get myself some herring.
André van Kruijssen,
General manager Veiling Holambra
