With the spring frost that severely impacted French apple orchards, the production reached only 1.37 million tons this year (according to the still provisional estimates), a volume almost similar to last year (1.33 million). “The situation is much better than we feared in April,” explains Daniel Sauvaitre, fruit grower and president of ANPP. “The frost has destroyed the first open flowers, but there was a lot of subsequent flowering.”
French apples are losing ground in Asia and the Middle East, but they seem to keep their appeal in the UK. “Necessity is the law. The British are hungry and are faced with shortages on the shelves. Despite Brexit, the UK remains our main market with remunerative prices,” explains Daniel Sauvaitre.
With the growing competition from Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Italy and Macedonia which are competing for markets, the French apple is losing ground in Asia and the Middle East. Poland now ranks 3rd in the world in terms of production, thanks to European subsidies, after China and the United States.
Source: lemonde.fr