Poland is heading for 3-million-tonne apple surplus

The apple production of Poland could increase to 3.8 million tonnes or even 5 million tonnes within several years. This would mean an apple surplus of up to 3 million tonnes. 

This year, Poland exports approximately 800,000 tonnes of apples with a harvest of 3.8 million tonnes. From Eurostat’s first data it can be concluded that Poland has visibly increased the export of apples to non-EU countries. During this period, export of apples to third countries was 247,000 tonnes, a 21 per cent increase compared with the same period a year previously. The largest influence on sales was the increasing demand from Belarus – export increased by 51 per cent to 176,000 tonnes.

Currently, Poland still exports most of its apples to Europe: Western Europe mostly remains the largest buyer of Polish apples. Up till now, Eastern Europe also played an important part in the export of apples. This will probably change soon: in recent years Poland exported tens of millions of apple trees to Eastern Europe. Result is that Eastern Europe now has approximately 30 million apple trees planted, and as soon as these start giving fruit, export of Polish apples to this region will decrease. For that reason, Poland has to look for new markets.

For two years now, Poland has not delivered apples to Russia, where the two-coloured strains which can still be easily found in Polish orchards, were much appreciated. One of the new possible export countries is China, but to export a significant amount to that country, the structure of Polish orchards will have to change: only about 20 per cent of apples of Polish production are of the one-coloured strains, and China is mostly looking for one-coloured apples, just as Western Europe is.

During the last five years, Polish tree nurseries produced 100 million apple trees. Of these, 20,000 hectares of orchards originated in Poland to produce 40 tonnes per hectare. The costs of replacing one hectare of orchard is approximately 60,000 to 80,000 PLN (13,000 to18,000 euro) A good-quality tree costs approximately 12 to 15 PLN, or about 4 Euro. Almost 3,000 trees are needed for one hectare.

In coming years the apple harvest could increase to approximately 4.5 million tonnes, and if the weather conditions are good even up to 5 million tonnes. The only thing standing in the way of apple cultivators is thunder, because it causes large losses in trees. The demand for table or industrial apples is not increasing concurrently with the increase in harvests. Apple consumption is decreasing in other countries, while demand for concentrated juices remains at the same level.