Growers from the leading apple-producing countries of the European Union, including Italy, France, Poland and the Netherlands, are said to be seriously concerned about the long-term prospects of the European apple market despite the very successful current and previous seasons.
“The concern of those growing apples in the EU is easy to understand. In the previous two seasons, apple prices were supported by a certain combination of circumstances such as partial loss of crops from bad weather and a surge in demand for apples during the coronavirus pandemic. However, all this time, apple acreage in the EU and non-EU developing countries continued to grow. If natural disasters do not happen, the apple harvest in 2021 in Europe may significantly exceed the needs of the regional market,” explains Andriy Yarmak, an economist at the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
“However, the potential overproduction of apples does not scare European producers as much as the new strategic course of Europe like ‘Green Deal’ and ‘Farm to Fork’ within which it is planned to drastically reduce the use of pesticides and other plant protection products as well as mineral fertilizers. Ergo, as early as 2021, growers may face problems in protecting their orchards due to the possible restriction or prohibition of plant protection products such as the Сaptan and Dithianon fungicides. Without them, according to representatives of the horticultural industry, the existing schemes for protecting apple orchards may turn out to be ineffective,” Yarmak told east-fruit.com.
Yet, for reasons unknown to us, the concern of the EU countries has not yet extended to Ukraine and Moldova even though they are increasingly active in selling apples to the EU countries. Moreover, most of the growers are not aware of the changes in EU legislation and strategy.
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