According to EastFruit analysts, this week there was a sharp change in trends on the Polish industrial apple market, where prices had been growing rapidly for quite some time. On Wednesday, processors began informing suppliers about price cuts, although farmers expected prices to continue growing. At first, there was talk of a reduction of around 1 US cent per kg, but by Thursday, November 9, there were reports of a reduction in purchasing prices by even 2 cents per kg of supplied apples, which is very significant for this apple segment.
According to EastFruit analysts, this week there was a sharp change in trends on the Polish industrial apple market, where prices had been growing rapidly for quite some time. On Wednesday, processors began informing suppliers about price cuts, although farmers expected prices to continue growing. At first, there was talk of a reduction of around 1 US cent per kg, but by Thursday, November 9, there were reports of a reduction in purchasing prices by even 2 cents per kg of supplied apples, which is very significant for this apple segment.
The situation among Polish farmers resembles panic, because many expected that with the completion of the harvest, apple supplies to processing would decrease, which would lead to an acceleration in price growth. However, it seems that processors believe that they have already accumulated sufficient stocks of apple juice concentrate and even raw materials. In addition, they are concerned about a possible decrease in margins from apple processing amid rapidly rising costs of raw material.
So far, this trend has not reached the Ukrainian market, where prices for apples for processing are significantly lower than on the Polish market. The supply of raw materials for the production of apple juice concentrate in Ukraine is assessed as sufficient. Relatively high prices make it possible to mobilize additional volumes of products for processing that would otherwise remain on under the trees in orchards.
According to EastFruit, Poland earned almost half a billion US dollars in 2022 from exports of apple juice concentrate (AJC), surpassing even China in this indicator. Ukraine became one of the four largest global exporters of AJC with export revenues of $168 million, second only to Poland, China and Turkey and ahead of such large and established exporters as Germany and Austria. In the ranking of the world’s largest exporters of apple concentrate, Moldova is in 11th place with revenue of $67 million, and Uzbekistan is in 21st with $20 million.
For more information: east-fruit.com