Chile has once again topped the table in the World Apple Report’s International Competitiveness survey.
It remains comfortably ahead of one-time leader New Zealand in the 12th annual comparative survey, with Italy and France in third and fourth places respectively - a reversal of their 2006 rankings. The UK dropped two places to 17th, while China rose three to 18th.
The study measures competitiveness on production efficiency, industry infrastructure and inputs and financial and market factors taking into account such factors as percentage of production of newer varieties, average yields, adequacy of storage and packing facilities, land, water and labour availability, marketing systems and input costs as well as percentage of production exported, distance to market and product quality control.
The main aim of the rankings is not only to identify the factors that make a country competitive, but also develop measures that can be quantified and so provide source countries with an objective way of evaluating their progress and improving their competitiveness.
The top 10 countries are unchanged from last year, although with slight shifts in ranking. Fifth to 10th are the US, Austria, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan respectively.
The study found that many countries have difficulty in expanding the percentage of acreage given over to new varieties. “Price premiums for past big winners like Gala and Braeburn have been eroded,” said study author Belrose Inc. “No public varieties with similar broad appeal have emerged. In addition, the sponsors of many promising new varieties are deliberately restricting plantings. Average yields have also declined in some major producing countries largely due to unfavourable weather.”
The report warned that the gap between top and bottom of the table remains very wide, with those near the bottom such as Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia-Montenegro needing to make swingeing changes to survive in the apple sector.
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