The pineapple market is not calming down. In April, the supply of raw material was even 19 percent lower than calculated forecasts. With consequences! Whereas in March we reported raw material prices at 8.00-8.30 Thai Baht/kg, local experts are now talking about 8.40-8.70 Thai Baht/kg pineapple. The main reason for the falling supply and price increases: drought. In Asia, there is talk of a "monster heat wave" with unusually high temperatures of up to 46 degrees for a long period of time. Due to the dry period not only the total amount of the harvest is decreasing, but above all the size of the fruit. The increasingly small pineapples are not suitable for further processing into canned goods and are instead used for the production of fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates. Those who need canned pineapples can currently still fall back on stocks from the last winter harvest, but these are also gradually coming to an end.

At present, no one dares to predict how prices will develop. On the one hand, supply is falling and inventories are low; on the other hand, demand is still rather low as buyers are behaving very cautiously on that market

By the way: Our glossary provides a detailed overview of the various pineapple cut sizes.

Already in mid-May, many tomato products of the past harvest are sold out in northern Italy, especially for wholesale and industry. In the case of tomato paste in drums, there is only one producer left who can offer certain quantities for sale. 4,250 ml cans and 10 kg BiB tomato pulp have to be repacked from barrels at great expense to ensure demand until the new harvest. In the case of small formats for the supermarkets, the world is completely different: Here, in some cases, there are still significant surpluses from the previous harvest ¬- for example, 720 ml bottles of Passata and 425 ml cans of chopped tomatoes.

With a view to the new harvest, some of the manufacturers will therefore switch from small containers to catering sizes - if the possibility exists in production planning.

With very important items already sold out or paying top prices for them (almost four months before new production from the upcoming summer crop is available), the power in price negotiations is clearly with the sellers at the moment. These justify the price increases on the one hand with the significantly higher expenses for the raw material. For example, on May 19, the raw material price in northern Italy was fixed at 150 euros per ton of round tomatoes and is thus identical for the first time in all Western European growing regions. On the other hand, cost increases for all packaging materials and higher interest rates for financing are also driving up prices. Only lower energy costs are helping to ease the costing situation to a certain extent.

However, the big unknown in pricing remains the weather. For example, after the long drought, torrential rains in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy flooded immense areas. It is still unclear how many hectares of land are actually involved, which must now be dried and prepared before new seedlings can be planted. However, insiders estimate that these measures will push back the previous schedule by at least two weeks.

But extreme weather is not only causing problems in Italy. Heavy rains also significantly increased uncertainties in major tomato growing areas in California. And in the Chinese region of Xinjiang frost caused problems. In addition, Ukraine will not play a significant role as a supplier country for tomato paste, and the fact that tomato products from China are no longer in demand from some customer countries or buyers is spurring the distribution battle for European products.

Our conclusion: Ultimately, demand will always determine the price. It is therefore to be hoped that consumption does not subsequently collapse due to excessive price increases and that there is eventually a drop in product prices.

Find out more about tomatoes in our "Special Tomatoes" of our strong brand ADRIA: whether fresh, dried, diced or strained. We explain everything here: from production to use, differences and special Brix content.

Corn commodity prices vary widely by region around the world. In Thailand, they have risen sharply in recent years due to drought. In addition, tariffs are high, so that Thai corn imports are no longer competitive on the European market. Corn from Hungary is still of good quality, but it is now a good 40 percent more expensive than the product from China.
The falling freight costs of the past six months and the current USD/euro exchange rate are also making corn from China increasingly interesting. Here, in contrast to Europe, it can even be harvested three times a year. However, it remains to be seen how much of this will actually be available for export to Europe, because domestic demand is also rising.

Paul M. Müller's corn stock is well filled, so we can supply you with high quality goods at good prices. Feel free to contact us.

With regard to the raw material prices of apricots from China, market experts currently report a slight increase, but they expect overall more favorable prices for canned goods than last year. The latter can be explained by various factors: For example, the three- to four-week harvest period in China, which began a few days ago, is going well. At the same time, there are still large frozen stocks of the fruit on the market. For this reason, insiders expect less competition from producers of frozen goods than usual. Last but not least, freight costs have also fallen and are having an additional positive impact on the price of canned goods.

The situation is different in Europe: Here, market experts are forecasting reduced yields of 30 to 35 percent in Greece and 15 to 20 percent in Spain for the apricot harvest starting in mid-June, as well as total crop failures in Italy. Due to the poor harvest, as well as increasing exports of fresh produce, an increase in raw material prices of 25 to 37 percent compared to last year is possible, according to our external expert. In addition, increased sugar prices and guaranteed minimum labor wages could raise prices for canned apricots from Europe - despite falling energy costs.