A bumper Brazilian apple crop this year has coincided with a large worldwide supply and the global financial crisis, meaning that total exports are expected to fall sharply by the end of the 2009 campaign.
That was the verdict of a new GAIN report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has pegged this year's apple crop at 1.17m tonnes, an increase of 4 per cent on 2008's 1.12m tonnes.
Overall apple exports are forecast to drop 20 per cent this year to 90,000 tonnes, down from 112,249 tonnes in 2008, with shipments hit by lower quality fruit resulting from unfavourable weather, high Northern Hemisphere apple stocks and uncertainties in the European market during the global economic crisis.
European uncertainties could see this season follow a similar pattern to 2008, the USDA said, when shipments to Europe declined by 5.5 per cent and sales to Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Central America grew.
Meanwhile, table grape exports are forecast to fall by 2 per cent due to softening demand as a result of the economic crisis, a contrast with 2008 when exports jumped 4 per cent on the back of increased demand from the US (up 72 per cent), which compensated for falling European demand.
