A forecast fall in production of apples across much of the EU will ensure a healthy balance between supply and demand in the market, according to Gerhard Dichgans, director of Europe's largest single apples supplier, VOG.
At the annual European topfruit industry meeting Prognosfruit, held in Toulouse earlier this month, the World Apple and Pear Association predicted this season's apple crop would fall around 9 per cent year on year to 9.7m tonnes.
According to Dichgans, seeing output fall beneath 10m tonnes in 2012/13 was likely to create a good feeling in the market.
'After the record harvest of 2011, in South Tyrol we forecast a drop of about 15 per cent due to the Easter frost and to an unusually rainy and humid April. This could be seen as a return to production figures only marginally below average,' he said.
'The real change, however, regards the supply situation in a European context, which has changed drastically from last season: the total harvest of the 27 EU nations will probably end up below the 'psychological milestone' of 10m tonnes, and this will ensure a positive balance between supply and demand, plus greater price stability.'
With harvests down significantly in France, Spain, Belgium and Holland, VOG is likely to find competition is a lot less intense in its traditional export markets, something Dichgans said he expected to be reflected in better prices for apples.
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