The situation for Eastern-European packers remains difficult, as both time, and local raw material prices seem to be running against them. The season started late this year in the first place, which results in a tight timeframe for 2020 deliveries as mentioned in our last report. On top of this the physical crop seems smaller than expected, which is further supporting the relatively high prices for raw material on the local markets. Luckily there is positive news coming from Eastern-Europe as well, as the color of crop receipts so far is reported to be very light and homogeneous. It remains to be seen whether prices of raw material will start to ease as time goes by. For the moment our advice remains to put focus on reliability of supply, making sure that pressure of deadlines doesn’t lead to compromise on quality.
Reports of crop receipts in California are overall on the positive side, supporting the estimations of a huge crop to come.
World consumption was increasing, stimulated by the low prices of the 19’ crop. But with a big crop in California showing up, prices remains weak to trigger demand. The uncertain times we live in, combined with the expected bumper crop this year, is driving most buyers back in a hand to mouth strategy.
