One Polish apple exporter believes the company can repeat its success of last year, by being able to provide their apples year-round. With volumes being higher than they were last year, this should be a feasible goal. However, the competition isn’t sleeping, and Poland will have to compete with the likes of Italy and Turkey in their targeted markets.
According to Jakub Krawczyk, export manager for Appolonia, the company will have more than sufficient apples this season to accommodate their clients year-round, as they did last year: “We hope that in the new season we can continue the good work we’ve done with our customers as well as find some new partners in the new markets like India, Egypt, Middle East and Europe. Most of our growers agree on one thing; they will have enough apples to support customers with good quality and with sufficient quantity. We expect to keep deliveries up year-round to our customers just like we did in season 2020/2021.”
Although weather did affect some of the orchards in Poland, Krawczyk states he’s not worries about the quality for the apples this season. “Generally, the quality of the apples should be good, we are very positive about it this season. We see that for example Gala and Golden look beautiful on the trees right now and we hope this will not change until the end of the season. Of course, there were places where there was hail, where more apples have dropped from the trees, where the storms or rains ruined the production, which is very sad, but still remember that Poland has the largest area in Europe when it comes to apple production and most of the growers should have a fair amount available. More and more of our growers are investing in modern protection and we see year by year improvement of the apples’ quality.”
Krawczyk states that India could become a very important market for the Polish apples: “Egypt and Middle East are our major markets, but there is also big potential in India and we look forward to shipping even larger quantities to that market than we did in previous years. These are the regions that looks the best in numbers but we also want to keep good relations with our European partners because working with them is always a pleasure. I don’t want to speculate right now, but it looks like Israel could be a good, new market for our apples, it has a big potential. It’s not far away, they like our quality and if more growers will make certification it would be easier to send there.”
Meanwhile, the competition in the targeted markets is heavy, with both Italian and Turkish apples being sold in the same countries, Krawczyk explains. “You never know what will happened during the season so it’s hard to say what will be our position during the whole season. It all depends on which market you look it. Italy is very strong with apples, producing high quality fruits. Their production has a tremendous effect on the pricing in the regions where we are also selling. More or less, we know what price level we should expect from them and we hope we’ll work together on the same markets successfully. Turkey is very strong in the Asian market, so we’ll also need to respect their position on the market and make a collective effort to ensure that customers will choose also our Polish apples. Our competition is not sleeping and finding a right spot for our production is very challenging, but we’re confident in our abilities.”
The season should develop in a different way this year, as growers will not have to be as keen to store the majority of their apples for the later parts of the season: “Last season not all growers wanted to start selling their apples in the first part of the season. Instead, a lot of them wanted to wait until the second half of the season to open their cold chambers. This season, it could be different, as we could have more product available in the beginning of the season. This can help move the sales faster, and volumes should still be enough to keep deliveries up the whole year round. There is a big discussion going on right now, regarding the prices for apples for the industry. Growers are complaining that big industry players are offering prices that are too low. We just hope that the final price will satisfy the growers, because they work very hard to produce good fruits and they need to be paid well for their jobs. Nobody should have to accept prices that are below production cost. Appolonia is a company made by growers, so we always support every movement for fair prices for the growers’ community.” Krawczyk concludes.
For more information:
Jakub Krawczyk
Appolonia
Tel: +48 785 342 930
Email: [email protected]
www.appolonia.pl