Pan-European trade body Freshfel has warned that the European apple market is likely to remain under considerable pressure during the early months of the southern hemisphere season due to high volumes of fruit on the market and prices under strain.
Freshfel finds several factors are at work: more supply out of Poland and China; more home-garden production in some European countries; Russia closing its borders to some EU apples (a ban still in force for Polish fruit); a strong euro; an overhang from the southern hemisphere and higher than predicted EU crops so that there is still 10 per cent more fruit in store than at this time last year.
But according to Mark Culley, md at importer and packer OrchardWorld there are other reasons also. “What’s happening is that some varieties - particularly Braeburn - are being overproduced,” Culley told FPJ. “We are now seeing the second year of European Braeburn sales going through to May which is stopping southern hemisphere imports coming in.
“Generally growers are producing more class I fruit, especially in EU-15 countries such as France.”
But Culley is optimistic for the southern hemisphere season this year. “I predict a far more stable marketplace this year than last,” he said. “We are going to see less fruit sent on an open price to the EU and we are going to have less volume.”
But he was critical of the newly imposed import licence system. “The danger is in five months time when the market has improved that this will be attributed to licences, but it will have nothing to do with them,” he warned. “They are a pain and a knee-jerk reaction. We should have had corrections to the existing system, not the imposition of a new one.”
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