There will be a slight increase in southern hemisphere top-fruit production this year despite serious weather problems in South America.
A positive season in South Africa is likely to make up for huge problems with drought in Argentina combining with a very cold winter, leading to low production output.
Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, Brazil is due to increase its top-fruit production as more growers come on stream but Australia and New Zealand’s output went down, largely due to a large crop last year.
2010 apple and pear southern hemisphere crops are expected to reach 5.2 million tonnes and 1.4mt respectively. For apples, this represents a small increase of one per cent on the
2009 crop; forecasted export figures follow a similar trend and increase to 1.3mt. For pears, a serious decrease of 12 per cent on the 2009 crop is recorded and forecasted export figures are nine per cent lower at 702,000t.
The northern hemisphere apple and pear stocks were also presented. European apple and pear stocks of 1 January, 2010 were at 3.6mt and 658,000t respectively, which represent an increase of five per cent for apples and for pears an increase of more than 50 per cent on stocks compared to the same time last year. US stocks were 10 per cent down to 1.6mt for apples and 26 per cent higher to 213,000t for pears.
Representatives of key apple and pear producing and exporting countries from around the world met at the Fruit Logistica fair in Berlin for the annual general meeting of the World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) to discuss the figures.
During its annual meeting, WAPA re-elected Alessandro Dalpiaz of Assomela, Italy as president of the association for the coming year and Kevin Moffitt was re-confirmed as vice-president of WAPA.
After close to 10 years of activities, the meeting looked back at past WAPA achievements and future priorities. Alessandro Dalpiaz, president of WAPA, said: “Members confirmed that WAPA is well underway in reaching its initial objectives in fostering the apple and pear industry worldwide, but more could be done, especially as most of the challenges are perceived to be at a global level. The further promotion of the health benefits of apples and pears and diversification of the WAPA membership to other key producing countries such as China, India and Turkey have been identified as key priorities.”
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