The harvest of Polish apples is still ongoing, but demand for early varieties is already at a high point. Soon workers will be transferred from the fields to packhouses and production capacity will be at full swing. The Polish government is completing plans for a program that will assist both companies and households with the high and uncertain energy prices.
According to Jakub Krawczyk, export manager for Polish apple exporter Appolonia, full production will be available once the harvest of their apples is completely done: “We’re currently finishing our harvest and from November we should have all of the varieties in our offer. Also, our production capabilities should become bigger as some of the workers in the fields will be moved into pack houses. Orders are coming in from many customers and we want to increase our capacity right now, but we will need to wait a few days until we will have our full production crew available. We’re receiving inquiries from countries that we never worked with before, so as a company we are very optimistic when it comes to sales this season.”
Krawczyk states that demand for Gala is strong, and demand for the other varieties should pick up later in the season. “There seems to be a lot of interest in the Gala variety, of which we have in large stocks this year. I think demand for this variety is increasing due to the coloration of our Gala apples, which is just about perfect. We’re also able to send these apples to long distance markets like Asia. There’s lower availability when it comes to apples in certain European regions, which puts us in a solid position for our sales. Sales of other varieties have started slowly, but their prime time will come later in the season. We have large quantities in our cold chambers, so we’ll be able to provide our apples the entire sales season.”
The Polish Government has put together a program that will help both households and companies with the increasing energy prices, Krawczyk explains: “Our government just started a program which will allow households and companies to buy energy for the current price level. This program is new and it should be fully agreed upon in the coming days, so we will have a look at it for sure. If it will reduce our bills, that’s good news for all produce exporters. There are also some small subsidies for coal and such for households and growers.”
In terms of prices, Krawczyk still has hopes they will increase in the next few weeks: “The current apple price is still too low to cover all of our production costs. It should increase in the coming weeks. It’s very hard for us to say whether there’ll be any profit at the moment, we need to wait for the season’s end. It’s getting harder and harder to get decent profits, because the customers’ specifications are getting more complicated. We need to sell all calibers for the right price, all costs are hard to predict in the longer term and in the end all of the invoices need to be paid.”
For more information:
Jakub Krawczyk
Appolonia
Tel: +48 785 342 930
Email: jakub.krawczyk@appolonia.pl
www.appolonia.pl