The French apple harvest is running four to five days ahead of last season and fruit volumes are likely to rise by about five per cent across the crop, due in part to a larger size profile than last year.
Vincent Guérin of the French national apple committee reports favourable growing conditions. He said: “Temperature, rainfall and irrigation and, above all, the number of fruits on the trees have all helped contribute to the larger sizing. The UK market buys smaller sizes and takes about 200,000 tonnes of fruit, or 10 per cent of the total French crop, so there will be plenty of the smaller sizes to supply the UK.”
The harvest of Gala, the earliest of the main varieties, is almost complete across the three major growing regions of the South East, the South West and the Loire Valley.
Golden Delicious picking in the Loire Valley and Limousin areas is forecast to start next week. The variety still leads French production but is more closely followed by Gala year on year, although volumes of both are expected to be down slightly on 2008. Meanwhile, output of both Granny Smith and Braeburn is tipped to head upwards slightly.
French growers are worried about both the UK and Russia. Guérin said: “Russia has become the largest export market for European producers but their phytosanitary conditions are very difficult to meet. Bilateral discussions are going on between the French authorities and their Russian counterparts, as well as between the Russians and EU officials.
“And the currency situation in the UK market troubles us. As such a near neighbour, it has always been and will remain a major market for us, but we wish sterling was not as weak against the euro. However, for the short as well as the long term, we will continue to send to the UK.”
Some early-season French sendings have come into the UK market already, but this will slacken off as retailers look to English fruit to fulfil programmes in the first half of the season.
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