The ongoing crop 2022/23 for was initially estimated by WAPA at a volume very similar to the preceding crop; since the month of August 2022, however, several Member States registered additional drought and heatwave events that will result on smaller fruit sizes
and, therefore, lower volumes. In the months to come we will now at which level below 12 million tonnes the EU crop volume will be.
In the case of Poland, the MS with largest volume, the need for adapting production to what is marketable, this is structural adjustments, has been confirmed once more. There are several provisional sources of information about the size of this crop; they point to a possible final estimate could be smaller than anticipated due mainly to labour shortages among other factors.
The volume of stocks on 1 July 2022, a part of which were transferred to the ongoing marketing year, was 518 930 tonnes. The surplus of these stocks on that date compared to the reference 5 year average represented just over 1% over the size of the crop.
The sector faces temporarily several challenges: 1) Rising input costs (especially energy and other farm inputs); 2) High costs on transportation; 3) Labour shortage (especially for harvesting).
These challenges are also accompanied by opportunities: 1) Moderate size of the part of the crop going to fresh consumption; 2) Measures being taken in order to allow for more reasonable energy prices for storing fresh apples and for facilitating apple processing; 3) Great export opportunities in the processing size in a context of a small crop in China (more than 50% of the world’s production and consumption, a crop 9 million tonnes below normal levels) and very favorable exchange rates on both Dollar and Euro terms for exporting on the Polish currency;
In the apple for processing segment, apple concentrate sells well on world markets and is expected to remain at very good prices during the ongoing marketing year.
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