According to surveys by Assomela and the South Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce, the cooperatives in the region of South Tyrol stored a total of 922,601 tons of dessert apples as of 1 January. In 2019, 1,028,399 tons were in stock on the same date, compared to 640,657 tons in 2018. Approximately half of the stocks in storage are apples of the Golden Delicious variety (474,855 tonnes), followed in order of quantity by the varieties Red Delicious (88,559 tonnes), Gala (82,379 tonnes) and Fuji (53,346 tonnes).
A comparison with last year shows that stocks of most varieties are lower this year than they were at the same time last year. The only exception is the Gala variety, of which slightly more apples are still in stock this year than in January 2019.
Current wholesale prices
A look at the latest wholesale prices for the month of December shows that, with the exception of Golden Delicious, the prices for the 2019 harvest for the available varieties are above the level of the same period last year. For Golden Delicious the prices are slightly lower. In December 2019, WIFO collected prices for all major varieties - i.e. Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Kanzi, Cripps Pink and Red Delicious.
The published prices are all gross prices, which should give a tendency from the current situation on the apple market. The costs for storage, transport, marketing, etc. must still be deducted from the prices published here in order to obtain an approximate indication of the expected payout prices.
Source: Südtiroler Bauernbund