Frustratingly, Polish apple exporters still haven’t been offered a solution to the Egyptian banks stopping the financial transactions. Mohamed Marawan, owner of Polish apple exporter Sarafruit, does emphasize that it can still get sorted, but who knows when that will be.
“Despite our hopes and wishes, still nothing has changed when it comes to exporting our apples to Egypt. The banks are still being a pain in the back, however we still have hopes things will return to normal. However, chances are very slim it will still happen within the current season. We just don’t know when it will happen.”
Although some exporters use a work around to still be able to export their apples to Egypt, Marawan states this is only a fraction of what would normally be shipped to the Egyptian market. “Of course, many companies are exporting apples to the Egyptian market by involving a third party, which pays for the invoices. However looking at the volumes exported that way compared to the usual volumes, it’s easy to see this isn’t happening on a massive scale. A lot of companies are finding new markets to export their apples to, without giving up hope on being able to export to Egypt again in the future.”
There’s still a solid two months left in the season for Sarafruit, and the current focus is on Jonaprince apples. “At the moment, we’re seeing a lot of Jonaprince apples on the market, with some other varieties being sold to the Polish domestic market as well. There’s also good demand for Golden, Mutsu and Gala varieties. As exports are a bit slower, I expect these varieties to be around for a while longer. We still have time to sell them all, as we’re controlling the remaining season and sales will go slow but steady. I expect our season to finish around mid-April.”
For more information:
Mohamed Marawan
Sarafruit
Tel: +48 537 935 155
Email: [email protected]
www.sarafruit.eu