A good growing year has buoyed French apple producers as they look confidently towards a future which in the long term will almost certainly bring more competition from the apple producing nations that have recently entered the EU.
Countries such as Poland and Hungary, the former in particular, produce significant quantities of fruit though - in the short term at least - they will not match the quality consistently found in French orchards.
Growers from France were among delegates from all over the world when Poland hosted the 28th Prognosfruit congress earlier this month, the first time that the annual event had been held in Eastern Europe.
Jacques Vanoye, president of the French Apple Marketing Commission, says: “It was a very interesting conference and it was useful to have the opportunity to meet with apple producers from the new EU countries.
“On the Saturday we visited an orchard and discussed with the owners the future as they see it for Polish apple growers, asking them about matters such as what varieties they are planting, marketing methods and so on.
“It is impossible to get the full picture from one orchard, but the dialogue was important and now that they are in the EU they will certainly improve growing techniques in the years ahead.
“They are not yet a rival to France, but they may be in the future as they improve productivity and quality. They could also put pressure on prices because of lower labour costs, though they will be pushed up now they are in the EU.”
Poland will produce 2.5 million tonnes of apples this year, almost twice as much as the country’s output as recently as 1995 and far more than the French figure of 1.782mt this year - which is 54mt up on 2003.
Over 50 per cent of the Polish output goes into the processing industry, however, and though a higher proportion will find its way into the fresh market as quality increases, the Poles are unlikely to provide a major challenge to the French position in the UK.
Loire Export’s managing director Andre Pavin, another delegate at Prognosfruit, says: “Only around 40 per cent of Poland’s output is of sufficient quality for the fresh market and I don’t see them as big opposition.
“The main variety they grow is Jonagold and that doesn’t suit the UK market, it goes mainly to Russia and other Eastern European countries with a small proportion going to Scandinavia.
“France will survive in the jungle of the apple industry by supplying better quality than the opposition. We are of course very strong in the UK and I believe we will maintain that position.
“We understand and meet the specific demands of UK customers and I feel that we can even strengthen our position through new varieties. Jazz and Ariane are now finding a niche, for example, and of course Pink Lady has already been a great success.”
So well has Pink Lady done since its 1999 introduction that few would argue with Andy Macdonald, managing director of the brand’s UK trade representative Coregeo Ltd, who says it is “the biggest success story of the apple industry in recent years.”
The volume of Pink Lady produced in France will rise this year by over 26 per cent to 63,346t, but the upward trend in demand should mean the continuation of good returns for growers.
Macdonald says: “In the last four years sales of Pink Lady have increased by 120 per cent and the market is still expanding, so with France supplying around 50 per cent of our northern hemisphere product the future looks good for growers over there.”
Sylvain Brard, export managing director of the Blue Whale Group, concurs. “We have a three-year plan for volumes of Pink Lady,” says Brard, “but demand is a lot higher than supply and certainly at present we can’t meet the demand.”
As well as producing Pink Lady, Blue Whale is also pioneering new varieties such as Ariane, which is about to enter its second year in the English market via the shelves of Marks & Spencer.
The new apple, which was developed over a 25 year period after first being grown at the Angers research centre of INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), looks set for a bright future.
“It’s a nice looking, very high quality apple that’s scab resistant,” he says. “Last year was its first commercially, and volumes are increasing only slowly at the moment, but they will definitely be stepped up in the next five years.
“Hopefully we will continue to have the sort of growing seasons we have enjoyed this year. The differential between day and night temperatures has given us excellent climatic conditions for growing apples.”
This compares favourably with the experiences of 12 months ago. “The rainfall in the last few weeks has been just what we wanted,” adds Brard, “so the crop is clean, the sizes are larger than last year and the colouring is good too.”
Brard’s upbeat mood is shared by fellow French apple producers as new varieties prosper while traditional product such as Golden Delicious, Gala and Granny Smith still sell well despite the levelling out of volumes continuing as planned.
Not that the old favourites will decline too appreciably. This year’s Golden Delicious production, for instance, will be 683,224t - that’s 3,361t up on last year but almost 135,000t down on 2001, yet it is still over 38 per cent of France’s total apple tonnage.
Discussing this year’s production figures and the way they may alter in future years, Treacy-Boutonnet director Ray Treacy says: “Golden Delicious will always remain though to a lesser extent - I’d say it will drop to around 20 per cent of total output.
“Reds and Granny Smith will eventually account for about 20 per cent between them, and Royal Gala and Braeburn will take about 20 per cent each. The final 20 per cent will be made up of newer varieties such as Pink Lady and others that we are developing.
“In the last three years we’ve introduced apples such as Brookfield, a member of the Gala family, Scarlet of the Red family and Mariri from the Braeburn family. We’ve also introduced new Fuji varieties, though the British don’t get on with Fuji.
“It’s not the right shape for one thing, and the taste doesn’t seem to suit the British palate either. British consumers have got a very astute taste when it comes to apples, just as they have with wine.
“They’ve certainly taken to a number of new varieties though - Pink Lady sales, for instance, have exploded. They’ve eaten into the market for Gala, whose sales are going backwards a bit while apples like Pink Lady and Braeburn go forward.
“But Gala should certainly have a better time this year than last, which was a major nightmare - the sun cooked the apples on the trees and it was a disaster insofar as a lot more apples than usual had to go to into the processing industry.
“The normal figure that goes to processing is around 10 per cent, but last year it was between 25 and 30 per cent and that brings returns down even if you’re selling the other 70 per cent into the fresh market at higher prices.”
The fresh market at least ended on a high note for UK traders, who are now as hopeful as Gallic growers that sales of French apples in the coming months will match the quality of the crop.
Ken Dinmore of J&H Dinmore, one of the major players on London’s wholesale scene, says: “The selling season for French apples finished on a very strong note, mainly in Golden Delicious.
“It was the best end of season we’ve enjoyed for more years than I can remember. Demand outstripped supply and that’s the perfect scenario for us - now we’d love to see the new season start as the last one finished.”
Those sentiments will doubtless be shared by French producers as they look to achieve the returns they desire while maintaining the entente cordiale they enjoy with the UK marketplace.
Vanoye, a grower himself as well as well as president of the French Apple Marketing Commission, says: “The UK is our leading export market and we understand perfectly its requirements.
“Our main tonnage goes directly to supermarkets and we have a very good relationship with them, working closely together and with both sides understanding each other.
“French apples have at times in the past had problems, some of them political, in the UK market and other countries have moved in and stayed in the market - but we are still the leading exporter of apples to the UK and I am sure we will remain so.”
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