Brazil will produce a smaller apple crop than last year, according to its apple association (ABPM)’s latest forecast, with the harvest now almost complete.
ABPM has estimated a crop of 993,000 tonnes, compared to 840,000t last season.
Gala lived up to pre-season forecasts of a 15 per cent decline in volume, and Fuji is showing the same trend with the harvest almost three weeks ahead of last year’s schedule.
Stock levels are low too, with Gala in store at the end of March at its lowest level in five years, due to an early harvest, which also pushed sales in March up seven per cent on the previous year.
Quality is good and the domestic Brazilian market has been strong. Exports are down on last season - by about 30 per cent to the EU overall by March 31, although prices are about 12 per cent higher.
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