As harvesting of early apple varieties begins across Europe's major producing regions, the continent's leading topfruit marketers say they remain concerned about the volume of stock still to be sold from the previous campaign.
'There is still a lot to sell from last season, including tens of thousands of tonnes of Golden Delicious in stock, particularly in north-east Italy, which is going to make things very difficult as we approach the start of the new season,' said one leading exporter attending last week's annual Prognosfruit conference at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Hans Van Es of the Dutch Produce Association said lessons would need to be learned quickly in order to avoid a repeat of the situation in 2009/10: 'I think people in the apple business are going to have to be more sensible and sell lower class and industrial-grade products as soon as possible rather than hanging on to it in the hope of prices rising again,' he said. 'In many cases, the cost of storing this fruit may well be higher than the amount made by waiting to sell it.'
An early start to the season across much of Europe is also expected to make life more difficult for exporters at the start of the new season, although the anticipated 7 per cent decrease in overall apple output in the 27 EU member states is likely to ease pressure slightly.
But the fact that volumes of major varieties like Gala and Golden Delicious are set to be the same as last year, or 8 per cent up in the case of Braeburn, means prices for these will probably remain low heading into the new campaign.
For varieties prevalent in eastern European countries, meanwhile, such as Jonagold and Idared, double-digit decreases in forecast volumes may be welcomed by those supplying key markets in the east like Russia and Ukraine.
Figures published by WAPA at Prognosfruit confirmed that apples stocks in a number of EU countries were significantly higher at the beginning June compared with the same point in 2008.
In Italy, remaining stocks amounted to more than 225,000 tonnes on 1 June 2009, 82 per cent higher than the previous year's equivalent figure. In Poland, the volume of fruit still in storage was 150 per cent higher year-on-year at 25,000 tonnes, while in Germany and Austria too, stocks were up 87 per cent and 94 per cent respectively on 2008.
With more unsold fruit in Spain, the Netherlands and the UK as well, only France, Belgium and Switzerland had less left to sell, according to the figures.
Prices in the processing industry, meanwhile, are extremely low at present. Since the start of the 2007/08 season, when a major frost decimate the crop in eastern Europe, wholesale processing rates have fallen from €0.20/kg to just €0.03-€0.04/kg two years on.
As a result, say exporters, the past 12 months has seen many operators choose to hold on to their low-grade fruit instead of selling it at a loss. The impact this has had on the lower end of the fresh market has been enormous.
