ISHS Acta Horticulturae 349: V International Symposium on Orchard and Plantation Systems
THE INTER-SEASONAL MARKET FOR FRESH DECIDUOUS FRUITS AS A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY |
| Authors: | D. Rymon, I. Kotlyar, G. Fishelson |
| Abstract:
Climate variation generates seasonal supply patterns of agricultural products in general, and of fresh fruits in particular. At least two obvious seasons are observed, winter and summer, which are opposite to one another in the northern and southern hemispheres. From the marketing perspective, the supply of fresh non-storable fruits to EC markets is distributed bi-modally. The annual time distribution pattern of the supplies to the markets is best described graphically as the back of a 'double-hump camel' with 'humps' of different heights. The first hump, from June through September, describes the northern hemisphere summer supply, with monthly quantities of hundreds of thousands of tons; the second hump from December to February is the winter supply which is smaller by at least two orders of magnitude, quantities are thousands of tons per month (Figure 1). The supply during the northern summer comes from many different agroclimatic regions. It therefore lasts longer than the other season's supply, which comes from only four or five countries, and is limited to December through February. The intra-seasonal supply patterns are best described by a Gaussian curve, with smaller quantities at the beginning and the end. The behavior of the market prices during the season is close to a mirror image of that of the supplies; hence, prices are determined, in accordance with economic theory, high at the two ends and lower when the supply is abundant. This 'double-hump' distribution pattern of the quantities supplied varies among years and for different fruits, but the general shape stays the same: some fruits start and end - earlier in the season (e.g., apricots appear early, cherries - later); each kind of fruit has thus two inter-seasonal periods of minimal supply: in the spring (late February to early May) and in the fall (late October to mid-December). The supply and price pattern described above, with two beginnings of seasons characterized by high prices, provides a natural economic opportunity. A grower who overcomes technical difficulties, and offers his merchandise during inter-seasonal periods may expect a relatively vacant market with high prices, hence, by means of technological control of the fruit supply, he could gain a suitable reward. Such an approach to a controlled agriculture has been generally defined and described by Rymon(1989) as 'The Fifth generation'. | |
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