The European and international apple markets continue to be characterised by an excess of supply, but there are some signs of encouragement which suggest they will gradually stabilise over the coming weeks, according to Italian apple consortium Assomela.
'On the basis of the available data and information, producers are not getting carried away but are moderately optimistic they will soon see a favourable development in the market,' said a spokesman for the group.
Apple stocks in Italy are reported to be slightly higher than at the same time last year, according to Assomela, which represents around 80 per cent of the country's apple production and 90 per cent of its Golden Delicious volumes.
The group revealed that stocks as of 1 November 2009 stood at 1.57m tonnes, up 1.8 per cent compared with the same time last year.
Italy's Golden Delicious volumes have registered a 1.4 per cent increase this season to just over 695,000 tonnes, and at the start of this month almost 637,000 tonnes were in storage, down 0.9 per cent on the year-earlier figure.
For Red Delicious, meanwhile, output has risen by 16.4 per cent to 178,677 tonnes this season, but Assomela also pointed out that this should be seen in the context of an overall 9 per cent downturn in production of the variety across the European Union as a whole.
Elsewhere, Gala volumes are almost 19,500 tonnes higher than in 2008, with stocks at 1 November reported to be almost 13,900 tonnes above those recorded on the same day in 2008.
