Despite challenging weather in Poland, the new apple harvest is looking positive according to Dominik Woźniak, of Polish apple exporter Rajpol: “The 2023 harvest of the Rajpol Cooperative is looking promising. We endured some challenging weather during the spring time in Poland. Spring frosts did some damage to cherries and plums, but also locally on the apples. However, when asking growers for their overall expectations, the orchards are looking good.”
After the spring frosts, there was a time with hardly any rainfall. Woźniak states that their orchards had irrigation options available, but not all orchards are prepared for dry periods: “After the flowering time, we experienced a couple of very dry weeks. There was hardly any rain during from June to mid-July. This lack of rain affected the sizes of apples in orchards that did not have the correct irrigation in place. Thankfully, the growers we work with all have the possibility to irrigate the orchards. The situation has improved since, we’ve had some rain by the end of July and the start of August. In the next few weeks we’re expecting a heatwave, it's unclear what that will mean for the crop.”
The Polish apple production is expected to be lower than last season, Woźniak explains: “We expect a smaller crop than last year. Mainly on Jonaprince and Idared, there will be some reduction in volumes. In Rajpol Cooperative we expect the harvest to be on a normal level. There’ll be a good harvest on Gala, Red delicious, and Golden will also be ok. Apple stocks are lower than usual at this point in the season, while we see more requests coming in from different clients in Poland or across Europe. Unfortunately we can’t help them, because we must keep fruits available for supermarkets with whom we have long term connections.”
Last season, getting a sufficient amount of workers to pick all the apples on time was challenging for some of the growers. Woźniak states it shouldn’t be a major issue for them this year: “Labor is always a topic when we speak with our growers. It’s simply challenging to have enough seasonal worker to pick all of the apples on time. However, our growers can manage it and we don’t expect any big problems in terms of labor.”
The Rajpol team receiving the Top Exporter award during the Modern Distribution Congress
“We don’t only have apples, we also grow pears. In the past few years the economy has showed us that it is more profitable to be a pear grower compared to being an apple grower. This is why more and more apple growers switch to pears, mostly the conference variety. Production for these pears is increasing every year, and the same is true for our cooperative,” Woźniak concludes.
For more information:
Aleksandra Ośko-Woźniak
Rajpol Sp. Z.o.o
Tel/WhatsApp: +48 5101 20995
Email: [email protected]
www.rajpol.com.pl