While it may be slightly premature for growers to start cracking open the magnums of champagne just yet, the French apple industry is certainly taking a cautiously optimistic stance in the run up to the 2007-08 season.
All signs from top-fruit conference Prognosfruit, which took place last Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania, are pointing in the right direction.
According to statistics released at the event, the apple yield of EU-11 members is expected to total 6.8 million tonnes, the lowest haul for more than 10 years, excluding last season’s6.65mt crop.
The yield among EU-15 members is estimated to stand at 8.5mt, 13 per cent lower than in 2006, and 17 per cent down from the 2003-06 average harvest.
Poland is showing a considerable loss of 45 per cent in volume due to heavy frost, while outside the EU, Turkish apple growers expect to harvest just 2.4mt - seven per cent down on 2006. Moreover, the hail and frost that has afflicted, and in many cases is still afflicting, a multitude of countries means that a larger proportion of fruit will be sent to the processing sector rather than retail or wholesale markets.
So why, exactly, are the French in an upbeatmood? The country’s overall production figure of 1.7mt is a far cry from the 2.2mt it had to offer in 2000.
According to Bobby Barton, export category manager for shipper Loire Export, the reasons are numerous. “The lower overall European harvest, coupled with a moderate-sized French crop, is one,” he says. “Secondly, there have been quality problems for growers in nations that compete against France, such as Poland and the UK, due to adverse weather conditions; and finally, the European market is not over-supplied with overhang from the southern hemisphere.
“We are confident of a good forthcoming season - already at Loire Export we have solid programmes in place with UK supermarket customers and contracts from clients in the foodservice sector.
“Visiting the orchards of our first variety, we can report a nice density and orange-red fruit on all parts of the tree, and excellent pressures have been recorded in our laboratory, meaning that fruit will have a nice visual aspect when packed and will store well.At first, we expected a glut of large-sized apples, but recent cool weather conditions have slowed down size expansion, so we should end up with mainly small to medium sizes.
“There should be plenty of good fruit available for the UK from the Loire Valley - we have not suffered any floods and will not have the headache of hail like our English counterparts,” he adds.
Loire Export is set to market 18,000t of apples in the UK this season, following on from 15,000t in 2006. “This is in line with an estimated 15 per cent crop rise, and our own growth rate for the UK market,” says Barton.
“There will be a minority of growers starting to timidly offer a few samples of Royal Galafrom Provence, with availability stepping up day by day. These growers traditionally start as early as they can, because they benefit from the precocity of their harvest, being able to send fruit to market when there is not so much competition for new-season products. The colour on Royal Gala looks good at the moment and no problems are expected in this respect when the season gets into full swing, due to good temperature mixes.”
However, Peter Davis of Lincolnshire-based importer Davis (Louth) says: “We have just started with volumes of Royal Gala and Galaxy, an early strain of Gala which keeps good colour. France has lost a lot of colour on its Royal Gala crop, achieving only 30 per cent coloration, as overnight temperatures have been so humid and have failed to drop to the requisite level.
“However, Galaxy has bucked the trend and managed to achieve 60-70 per cent coloration.”
Further unusual weather patterns are taking their toll on certain regions, according to Davis. “There was heavy rain at the end of last week in the Vaucluse region, and there were some horrendous hailstorms in various apple-growing areas, but they were very localised,” he says. “Reports are coming in of some growers suffering damage to 30 per cent of their crop, while others just 10 miles down the road have been enjoying bright sunshine.”
Davis (Louth) saw its first arrivals of French Golden Delicious to the UK last week. “The quality of the fruit is looking excellent - I would say probably the best crop we have had for the last four or five years,” says Davis.
“This French season is going to be very exciting - we are so far looking at good quantities and high quality, although we could do with a few cooler nights to ensure better coloration.”
French apple exporter Blue Whale will be marketing 20 per cent of its apples in the UK and Ireland this year, whilst 25 per cent will remain in France. The firm shipped its first apples to the UK at the end of last week, one week earlier than the first sending of 2006.
Sylvain Brard, commercial director for Blue Whale’s UK and Irish market, explains: “This season, fruit sizes are smaller, so we are anticipating good supply to the UK.”
Last year the firm sold 123,000t of apples, but this season volumes are on the rise. “We expect to market 137,000t,” says Brard. Some 36,000t will be Royal Gala, 26,000t Golden Delicious, 22,000t Granny Smith, 15,000t Braeburn, 12,000t Pink Lady and 2,000t Ariane.
Highly coloured clones of Royal Gala such as Brookfield, Galaxy and Mondial are growing in popularity among growers as they seek to improve consistency. “We emphasise to growers that the most important thing to look out for is not quantity per growing field, but the quality and consistency of their output,” says Barton.
Royal Gala is still by far the most popular bi-coloured variety, a good sweet eating apple that offers plenty of small-sized fruit to satisfy pre-packing lines.
However, demand for Braeburn is dipping. “At Loire Export this is the fourth consecutive year we have been disappointed in this variety,” says Barton. “This is partly because our two main customer countries for this apple, Germany and the UK,have now started planting trees on their own soil. Braeburn is also a high-density apple and doesn’t offer much abundance in small sizes for the polybag market. To compensate for this dip in Braeburn and to keep our customer base on this variety, Loire Export is now marketing only highly coloured clones like Joburn and Mariri Red.”
The rise in importance of club varieties like Ariane, Cameo and Juliet may also be pinching shelf space from varieties like Braeburn. “Blue Whale has a lot of hopes riding on Ariane - certain retailers made reference to the variety last season and we are hoping to build on that this year. The orchards are young and we are seeing important progression with this particular fruit,” says Brard.
Meanwhile,other traditional varieties like Golden Delicious and Granny Smith have suffered from tree grubbing. “However, this decrease in production has had a positive impact on these varieties’ performances over the past few years,” says Barton.
Golden Delicious supplies from Provence are not expected to start in earnest before August 13, he continues. The Loire Valley will yield its first apples around the last week of August, while producers in the South West will commence harvesting and packing from mid August.
“These two production regions are traditionally a few weeks behind Provence, which benefits from a warmer climate and hence an earlier start date,” explains Barton. “From a strategic point of view, we start sourcing from Provence in early August, and then move up to the Loire Valley as soon as we can.”
The UK and Ireland represents 40 per cent of Loire Export’s sales potential. “Here, we market the best selection of fruit to obtain the best prices. We only sell Class I produce to the UK, and the crux of the season and the returns to growers aremainly dependent on good trade with English supermarkets. Traditionally, fruit marketed to Scandinavia and Germany is of a lesser quality.”
France accounts for 34 per cent of all apples imported by the UK. But is the market becoming less profitable for French exporters as demand for cheaper apples increases? According to Davis, the French have been steadily losing UK market share on apples to cheap Polish imports and also to Italians, who he believes have gone out of their way to meet the demands of UK retailers.
But Barton takes a more optimistic approach. “There was a bit of panic in France a few years ago when eastern European countries like Poland seemed to be nipping at our heels; but these countries don’t have varieties suited to the western European palate, and are still lagging behind in technical terms,” he says. “Too much of their production is concentrated in old varieties that don’t suit the west European consumer.
“On the high street, it is hard to beat the quality of French product. English supermarket buyers still look upon France as the crux of their sourcing campaign - they may have moved east to areas like Poland for cheap bagging lines or value/bumper packs, due to low labour costs and cheaper farmgate prices, but quality display, loose packs are still mainly packed in France.”
French exporters are also not overly concerned by the UK market’s oft-stated preference for home-grown apples. “In the top-quality sector, there will always be demand for French apples,” says Barton. “Moreover, the geographical proximity of France to the UK will always keep France in pole position. Many of our UK customers are used to our flexibility, and know they can give orders late and still obtain quick deliveries.”
The UK is still a decent market for French product, according to Davis, but the French always find themselves under pressure towards the end of September, when all the country’s growing areas have available product.
“Year after year of poor results has forced many French growers to fold, as their market share eventually fell to a level that was not sustainable,” he says.
“A decade ago the first arrivals of the French season was a big event, but now it is not, and that makes our jobs a lot harder.
“We are optimistic we are doing a nice spread of product this season, and the crop is looking good, but we must always bear in mind that the window for French apples is closing year on year, as increasing bouts of extreme heat means we struggle to have top-quality fruit available for a decent period,” Davis adds.
One way to combat any quality issues is orchard renewal, according to Brard.“Blue Whale has helped renew its growers’orchards with variety strains that colour better and adapt more easily to the market, especially the Mariri Red Braeburn, the Brookfield strain of Gala, the Challenger Granny Smith and the Rosy Glow Pink Lady cultivar. While the rest of France’s apple growers have barely achieved a three per cent orchard renewal rate, we have managed to hit seven per cent.
“The French share of the UK apple market has dropped in the past year, certainly, but Blue Whale has been able to maintain tonnage thanks to the flexibility of its packing stations and good product shelf life. We are differentiating ourselves by focusing on orchard renewal, ensuring we can maintain supplies with anti-frost and anti-hail protection measures and introducing new varieties like Ariane,” Brard adds.
Another factor influencing the market is changing consumer approaches to fruit sizing.
“The UK and French markets complement each other well, because the former demands smaller fruit and the latter larger sizes,” says Brard.
And Barton says: “Over the past 10 years, France’s number one customer country, the UK, has pushed us to do bagging lines and pre-packs to fulfil this overwhelmingly popular idea of small apples as a healthy snack.”
The 5 A DAY programme, along with school fruit and vegetable schemes, means that small apples of 60-70mm are by far the most popular size now. “In the Loire Valley, as in other areas of France, growers traditionally made a premium by growing large apples of 75-80mm to 80-85mm to cater to the wishes of the domestic market, which for a long time preferred a large apple at the end of a meal. But consumption is no longer the same, and growers have had to change their way of growing apples, size wise,” says Barton.
“The apple is an important tool for healthy eating campaigns like 5 A DAY and its French equivalent, Fresh Attitude. Both the French and the UK markets have reacted to this by moving down one size in the size spectrum, meaning that Frenchproduction is still lagging behind demand for small fruits, compared to countries like South Africa.”
France has to remain focused on the premium end of the apple business in order toA secure its future in the UK market, according to suppliers.
“We can’t afford to offer average, run-of-the-mill product, but must ensure top quality to secure our privileged trading relationships with our European neighbours, and maintain the ongoing entente cordiale with the UK,” says Barton. “Quality, consistency and innovation are the keys to the future. The French are renowned for their technical expertise - do not forget that, as in the wine industry, in many ways they were the pioneers of the apple industry.”
SMASH-ING SALES ON CARDS
Loire Export is a grower-based organisation set up in 1978, that sells 35,000 tonnes of French apples and pears from its own dedicated producer base in the Loire Valley and Provence.
“We operate all over northern Europe and eastern countries with a firm focus on our leading market - the UK and Ireland,” says category export manager Bobby Barton, who works alongside colleague André Pavin on the UK side of the business.
The company deals withmultiple retailers and, according to Barton, is also known for its direct daily links to the wholesale sector. “We market our fruit under the well-known brand Smash, which has an excellent following on all UK wholesale markets,” he says. “Our growers collectively cultivate an area of approximately 400 hectares. We benefit from an excellent climate in the Loire Valley, not too hot and not too far away from the Atlantic ocean.”
Loire Export offers all mainstream varieties, with considerable volume in the main four: Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Royal Gala and Braeburn.
“We encourage our dedicated supply base to constantly re-invest and upgrade orchards to suit consumption trends,” explains Barton. “The recent increase in concern over food safety has pushed us to update our packhouses to BRC standards, and look constantly at orchard-planting programmes.
“We find from our own commercial experience that highly-coloured clones across the variety spectrum are those that perform the best. We are actively planting clones of Gala like Brookfield and Galaxy, while in Braeburn we are moving towards Mariri Red and Joburn. Customers don’t just buy with their tastebuds; they also buy with their eyes, and highly coloured red apples are consistently popular.
“Our supply period spans 12 months. Being a trading reference means you have to be in this job 52 weeks of the year. In order to keep track of the market and to keep turnover going in the off season, Loire Export has had to take a proactive stance in the past couple of years,” says Barton.
The firm has now turned to importing popular apple varieties like Royal Gala.
“This year we tripled our imports from South America, namely Brazil and Chile, to continue trading during June and July when France does not have enough of its own fruit to supply the UK. You can’t just sit around and let customers go off on other trading routes; we have to offer what the customers want, and at that time of the year it is new-season apples.
“Of course, Frenchapples remain the backbone of our business, but we hope to increase our sales volume significantly over the next few years with imported produce,” he adds.
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