There are still large volumes of Golden Delicious apples among the Polish stocks, says Jakub Krawczyk, export manager for Polish apple exporter Appolonia: "The current apple stocks are quite similar to those of last season around this time of year, so we don't see too many differences. For Golden Delicious we still have quite a significant stock available. The export of Golden did not really start in large volumes and almost everyone has their chambers full of this variety. There are also still many Golden apples available in Italy and Spain, so there's not really much space on the market to sell it. Normally Egypt or Jordan were big receivers of that variety, but this season we did not export big volumes there."
The lack of interest in the Golden Delicious apples is not due to the variety itself, but due to the sizes, which are smaller than the European preference, Krawczyk explains. "We also need to keep in mind that normally customers in Europe used to buy Golden in sizes larger than 75mm, which leaves us with Golden of sizes between 70/75, in big volumes, which we also need to sell. However, there aren't many companies willing to buy these. So far, selling Golden these season is not an easy thing, which was completely opposite last season. We still hope that the situation will change, because it is a super tasty apple."
Krawczyk states that the opposite is true for Gala, as this variety could come to a close a little earlier this year: "The variety that could finish a little sooner than last season is Gala. There were fewer apples with high firmness, which meant some of the apples that would've normally gone to Asia were now sent to Europe. Customers have very high standards regarding that variety and firmness is very important in the export of Gala. Only super hard apples can be chosen for shipments that take more than 30 days."
One specific variety is quite popular at the moment, but Krawczyk states that they will need to have the right firmness right now. "I think growers who are able to produce Red Jonaprince with current firmness of around 6,5-7+ are the winners. There is a big demand for that variety from our customers right now and prices are higher than prices on both the domestic and EU market. There are many apples available now with much lower firmness, but we are not able to sell it to a lot of customers. So having a hard, good quality Red Jonaprince is a good thing to have."
"There is still a big demand for Gala apples in Asia and Middle East. There was a point in the season where in few weeks' time everybody just started to look for it. Unfortunately, there aren't as many apples available as we would need and we have to finish season earlier with a couple of customers. Slowly, European clients are placing more orders, but it still needs to increase. From the 1st of April Belarus will be again open for Polish apples, so this will probably move the market a little bit. We're really hoping that Europe will start ordering normal volumes of apples soon. We also think supermarkets should catch up with the market price a little bit more, which is increasing," Krawczyk concludes.
For more information:
Jakub Krawczyk
Appolonia
Tel: +48 785 342 930
Email: [email protected]
www.appolonia.pl