Greenyard announces 3.6% fall in sales after a challenging first half year

Global fresh and frozen fruit and vegetable giant, Greenyard, reported a drop in sales due to “exceptional weather conditions” across Europe. A persistent drought affected the growth of vegetables and fruit, with a high impact on the availability of the product and/or on market prices. Combined with earlier announced and continuing margin pressure in a number of Greenyard’s key markets, this resulted in a net sales decline by 3.6% to €1.98 billion (excluding discontinued operations). Without taking into account the FX effect (-0.2%), net sales declined by 3.2% versus last year. In the fresh category, net sales declined by 3.5% to €1.65 billion, mainly due to a loss of volumes from competitive pressure and pricing impact as a result of the weather conditions. In the Long Fresh category, net sales declined by 4.1% to €334.9 million, primarily from the discontinuation of certain non-profitable contracts and delay of orders in Prepared, but also a temporary loss of sales due to the Listeria recall in Greenyard’s Frozen division.