Ample stocks of European apples and a weak dollar are likely to colour the southern hemisphere apple season in Europe this year.
Chilean and South African fruit is already arriving, while New Zealand is experiencing a later than usual start to its campaign and predicting a slight fall in production volumes.
The Royal Gala harvest in New Zealand, which started about 10 days behind last year’s start date. General high quality, and lower volumes of Braeburn are expected, following the high output year of 2004.
But it is unlikely to be plain sailing for the Kiwis as freight rates are still high and sales to the US market will surely be affected by the weak value of the greenback.
Competition among southern hemisphere senders is likely to be felt most on Royal Gala with one leading Chilean exporter admitting to approaching European markets in general with caution. “There are rumours that the market will be bad because of the volumes arriving so we are a bit apprehensive,” said the exporter.
In volume terms, Chileans expect a season in line with recent averages as production conditions have been kind. Heavy rainfall early in the growing period has not had an adverse impact on fruit and sizes are reported to be similar to last year with counts averaging 113 fruit per 18kg box compared to 110 last season.
No comments yet