The usual monthly meeting of the Assomela Marketing Committee was held on Tuesday, May 9th to analyze the domestic market situation.
Italian stocks on May 1st were 378,311 tons, i.e. 10% lower than the average of the five previous years and 16% lower than the past season. In particular, stocks are extremely low for Golden Delicious, as the current 163,263 tons (very similar to 2018) are 35% lower than last year and only one third of the entire production.
Red Delicious sales have accelerated over the past month, and they are 13% higher than last year also thanks to a good receptiveness of the foreign market, especially the Indian one. Fuji stocks (16,297) are 37% lower than last year. Sales are satisfactory for the new varieties, which were met by the favor of consumers. The organic apple trend also improved, although not in line with previous years.
© Dariusz Szwangruber | Dreamstime.com
De-stocking rhythms in April, considering the fewer days of sale available, have been rather sustained, also thanks to the climate and not exactly spring-like temperatures. At the moment, especially for some varieties including Golden Delicious, demand is not in line with supply and producers will have to modulate destocking plans to be able to supply the market until the start of the next season and to guarantee a fair remuneration to producers so that they can cover the increase in costs, as they are definitely not comparable with those of 2018.
Of the community dossiers that may further impact on the sector and the drop in consumption, Assomela is keeping a close eye on the evolution of the EU proposal on packaging and packaging waste as, since it would only allow using packaging for sales units above 1.5 kg, not only it would risk causing various problems including food waste, but it would also ignore the efforts made by the sector in the search for sustainable packaging.
Applications to Prognosfruit also officially opened, which this year will be held in Trentino (Italy) on August 2nd-4th. The event will be an occasion for the whole sector to discuss production expectations for the 2023/2024 seasons as well as all the challenges the Italian and European markets are facing.