The apple market in the UK is performing well for southern hemisphere fruit, despite a sluggish performance on the Continent.
“The market is fine, there are no massive oversupplies and uptake for apples is good,” said Steve Maxwell of Worldwide Fruit. “We are where we would expect to be in volume for this time of the season, and we are doing OK on price.”
But New Zealanders are concerned about the slow progress, particularly in the rest of Europe. “Volumes of sales have been running well below the level of the past two years for five weeks now,” said a spokesman for industry body Pipfruit New Zealand. “…Prices for almost every variety are higher than the previous two years.”
The Kiwis are concerned that with picture will continue to be bleak with the summerfruit season about to start in volume. But Maxwell believes that apples weather this onslaught better than other staples such as bananas. “Sales do go down a bit because we lose some shelf space, but there is no real noticeable decline.”
Some importers have been clearing their supplies of South African Gala before New Zealand fruit, which may also explain the Kiwi’s perception of a slow market.
But figures from TNS show that although prices were some 7.5 per cent up year on year in April, the values-still-up, volumes-slightly-down trend is slowing into May in the UK.
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